Julian Assange? Who's that?

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Psamathe
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Re: Julian Assange? Who's that?

Post by Psamathe »

I see he has now been arrested by UK Police. There had been rumours about the Ecuadorians evicting his (as they alleged his behaviour had been incompatible with his asylum and he'd allegedly been breaking agreements with them).


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Lance Dopestrong
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Re: Julian Assange? Who's that?

Post by Lance Dopestrong »

Oh dear, never mind.
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Ben@Forest
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Re: Julian Assange? Who's that?

Post by Ben@Forest »

Psamathe wrote:There had been rumours about the Ecuadorians evicting his (as they alleged his behaviour had been incompatible with his asylum and he'd allegedly been breaking agreements with them).


And apparently he'd not been looking after his cat properly. Now any sympathy the British public had for him will go straight down the pan...
Psamathe
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Re: Julian Assange? Who's that?

Post by Psamathe »

Apparently, arrested on behalf of the US who have issued an extradition warrant.

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mercalia
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Re: Julian Assange? Who's that?

Post by mercalia »

will be interesting to see how the UK judicial system hold up. I hope they refuse to hand him over to the yanks. god help him if Trump gets his hands on him?

he looks pretty bad on the BBC news page
Tangled Metal
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Re: Julian Assange? Who's that?

Post by Tangled Metal »

He probably knew it's coming so built up his shabbyness to play up to the courts that he has mental problems that would be made worse by American justice.

Of course he's on the hook for skipping bail over the Swedish extradition request. That request has been withdrawn so what's the legal situation over the skipped bail? Does that still count if the cause of his bail no longer exists?

BTW is it true there's an American extradition request? Last time I looked there wasn't and he was only on the hook for failed bail conditions.
thirdcrank
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Re: Julian Assange? Who's that?

Post by thirdcrank »

In my ideal world, he'll be produced at Westminster Magistrates' Court on the charge of failing to answer bail, the district judge will announce that the time spent in custody today is sufficient and then tell him he's free to go.

It's going to be interesting to see if it's right that the US has been waiting to get him. It seems they didn't bother when he was las in custody here, or he'd not have got bail then.
Ben@Forest
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Re: Julian Assange? Who's that?

Post by Ben@Forest »

Tangled Metal wrote:Of course he's on the hook for skipping bail over the Swedish extradition request. That request has been withdrawn so what's the legal situation over the skipped bail? Does that still count if the cause of his bail no longer exists?


According to one of the newspapers the Swedish charges have not gone beyond their statute of limitations and lie on file. They could be revived.
Psamathe
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Re: Julian Assange? Who's that?

Post by Psamathe »

Ben@Forest wrote:
Tangled Metal wrote:Of course he's on the hook for skipping bail over the Swedish extradition request. That request has been withdrawn so what's the legal situation over the skipped bail? Does that still count if the cause of his bail no longer exists?


According to one of the newspapers the Swedish charges have not gone beyond their statute of limitations and lie on file. They could be revived.

I saw a report that one of the legal representatives of one of the Swedish women has asked prosecutors to re-open the case. However, I wonder if claims on his extradition might be on a 1st come 1st served and as the US have probably had their extradition request in for some time I'd suspect that will all be underway before Sweden could get anything going.

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Lance Dopestrong
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Re: Julian Assange? Who's that?

Post by Lance Dopestrong »

For someone who protests his innocence in all regards, an awful lot of people want to chat to him about alleged criminal behaviour. Some of it's going to stick, it'll be interesting to see which and when.
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bovlomov
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Re: Julian Assange? Who's that?

Post by bovlomov »

Lance Dopestrong wrote:For someone who protests his innocence in all regards, an awful lot of people want to chat to him about alleged criminal behaviour. Some of it's going to stick, it'll be interesting to see which and when.

I hope the legal cases aren't conducted on that basis - that something will stick.
thirdcrank
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Re: Julian Assange? Who's that?

Post by thirdcrank »

bovlomov wrote: ... I hope the legal cases aren't conducted on that basis - that something will stick.


AIUI, he's already been to court this afternoon and convicted of failing to surrender to bail criminal proceedings. As the beak felt his sentencing powers - three months imprisonment - were inadequate he's committed him in custody to the Crown Court where up to twelve months is the max.
Finding him guilty of that charge, District Judge Michael Snow said Assange's behaviour was "the behaviour of a narcissist who cannot get beyond his own selfish interest".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47891737

By way of explanation, I'll mention that bail was only formalised under the Bail Act 1976, which created what was then a new criminal offence of failing to surrender to bail in criminal proceedings. Around here at least, whenever somebody was arrested on a warrant issued by a court when a bailed defendant didn't turn up we used to add a charge under the Bail Act and this was prosecuted by the police (Pre-CPS then.) There was then a "practice direction" from some top judge saying that the relevant court would deal with this "on its own motion." ie Similar to contempt of court nothing to do with the prosecuting authorities. At the time, I thought this meant that skipping bail was going to be waffled away among the learned friends, but as is so often the case I was wrong. They have taken it even more seriously than we did. In this case, I thought the beak would close the case today - as I posted above - but it looks as though he'll be doing the Ronnie Barker impersonations for a while before the other stuff kicks in.
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1976/63

Re the Swedish case, I understood they had simply adjourned it on the basis that it was futile then to persist. AIUI, that could still be re-opened, but I know even less about Swedish law than our own
Psamathe
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Re: Julian Assange? Who's that?

Post by Psamathe »

Apparently Ecuador made a condition of the UK Government when they allowed the arrest that Assange cannot be sent on to a country where he might face torture or the death penalty. UK Government has confirmed it agreed to the condition.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/wikileaks-assange-arrested-at-ecuador-embassy-in-london/2019/04/11/13c7fe36-5c3f-11e9-98d4-844088d135f2_story.html?noredirect=on wrote:Moreno [Ecuador’s President] appeared to suggest a swift extradition to the U.S. was unlikely.

“In line with our strong commitment to human rights and international law, I requested Great Britain to guarantee that Mr. Assange would not be extradited to a country where he could face torture or the death penalty,” Moreno said. “The British government has confirmed it in writing, in accordance with its own rules.”


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Re: Julian Assange? Who's that?

Post by slowster »

thirdcrank wrote:Re the Swedish case, I understood they had simply adjourned it on the basis that it was futile then to persist. AIUI, that could still be re-opened, but I know even less about Swedish law than our own

AIUI, there was more than one complainant, and there were various charges/allegations of which at least one was a more serious offence under Swedish law than the rest, and whereas the statute of limitation has since expired for the lesser offences, it has not for the more serious offence(s). It seems that it is now up to the Swedish prosecutor to decide whether to revive that charge and again seek extradition.

The US extradition request seems to be focused on the very particular issue of Assange's 'participation' in Manning's downloading of US secrets. They are apparently suggesting that Assange advised Manning how to crack a password on the Defense Department computer system to allow data to be downloaded without the activity being so readily traceable to Manning. In other words, rather than just being a passive recipient of the data from Manning, Assange played an active role in the illegal access and downloading of data, such that his actions would be an offence under the UK's equivalent laws covering computer misuse (i.e. hacking).

The US is obviously very conscious that Assange's activities are akin to those of a journalist and that they cannot simply prosecute him for revealing classified information, because of the protection the US Constitution provides to maintain freedom of the press. So it looks like the case will hinge on at what point, if any, does the support/encouragement/advice/assistance provided by a journalist to a whistleblower or other source (who is potentially breaking the law in disclosing confidential information to the journalist) cross the line and itself becomes a criminal offence. It's quite logical and arguably reasonable for a journalist to tell a whistleblower to be careful, possibly to give them advice on covering their tracks, and maybe to provide them with technological assistance, e.g. a concealed recording device. In this case, it looks like they are only able to pursue an extradition and prosecution because the advice/assistance Assange gave concerned something for which there are specific criminal offences, i.e. hacking, in the UK and the US.

I also wonder if the extradition case might be lost by the US, given the recent history of the convictions being overturned of journalists for 'misconduct in public office' (i.e. paying police officers and others to provide information).
Oldjohnw
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Re: Julian Assange? Who's that?

Post by Oldjohnw »

I note that the Trump made over a hundred favourable references to Wikileaks during his election campaign but yesterday claimed he didn't really know anything about it.
John
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