Sweden refuses to rescind Assange warrant
| 20 Nov 2014: posted by the editor - Human Rights, International | |
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A Swedish appeals court rejected on Thursday an appeal by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to revoke a detention order issued by prosecutors in 2010 over allegations of sexual assault. John Pilger has referred to the enforced detention of Assange as a farce. Writing on his blog he says: "The siege of Knightsbridge is a farce. For two years, an exaggerated, costly police presence around the Ecuadorean embassy in London has served no purpose other than to flaunt the power of the state. Their quarry is an Australian charged with no crime, a refugee from gross injustice whose only security is the room given him by a brave South American country. His true crime is to have initiated a wave of truth-telling in an era of lies, cynicism and war." In making its judgement, Svea Court of Appeal said in a statement: "In the view of the Court of Appeal there is no reason to set aside the detention solely because Julian Assange is in an Embassy and the detention order cannot be enforced at present for that reason." Mr. Assange has been stuck inside Ecuador's London Embassy since June 2012 to avoid a British extradition to Sweden. Sweden wants to question him on allegations of sexual assault and rape, which he denies. The swedish prosecutor has refused to travel to the UK to interview Assange in a neutral setting—an acceptable and normal procedure in such cases where no charges have been issued. The Australian says he fears that if Britain extradited him to Sweden he would then be extradited to the United States where he could be tried for one of the largest information leaks in U.S. history. Tags: Julian Assange |
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