Julian Assange, head of the WikiLeaks whistleblowing site, will be extradited to Sweden on charges of rape, but has seven days to appeal against the decision, given today at Belmarsh magistrates’ court.
As predicted, the judge dismissed the arguments against extradition, arguing that Assange would stand a fair trial in Sweden, and was in no risk of being re-extradited to the US, over unrelated allegations to do with WikiLeaks’ release of US diplomatic cables. Today’s brief heqaring follows a two day extradition hearing which Judge Howard Riddle adjourned until today.
The procedural arguments would fail, and the claim that Assange could be re-extradited to the United States to face separate charges over WikiLeaks’ release of the US cables is not credible, Knowles, who has written books on extradition, told the BBC’s Law in Action.
Although US politicians have called for Assange’s extradition there, and even demanded his execution, Knowles described this as a “hopeless argument” against his extradition to Sweden.
Today, Judge Riddle said, as predicted that the Swedish judge does have the power to issue arrest warrants, and the case will face trial if he is extradited, contrary to Assange’s legal argument that this is merely a request for questioning.
The US government has so far been unable to get an extradition case together for Assange, as WikiLeaks merely published information that was taken by others. A US court has asked for the account details of WikiLeaks’ supporters on Twitter, including those for Icelandic parliament member Birgitta Jónsdóttir. Facebook and Google are believed to have had similar requests.
Assange was arrested in Britain in December, and the WikiLeaks site is campaigning in opposition to his extradition. Meanwhile however, some former WikiLeaks members have set up a rival whistleblowing site called OpenLeaks.
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Assange and his friends have been recieving the same emails that I have been sending the Feds have for years
For instance Here is my latest email Birgitta Jónsdóttir
Please notice that an email of mine sent to her associates in Iceland was published in a blog before she got elected in 2009
From: David Amos
Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2011 18:06:52 -0400
Subject: This ain't a big read but you keep ignoring it anyway. Why?
To: birgitta
Cc: maritime_malaise
http://qslspolitics.blogspot.com/2009/03/david-amos-to-wendy-olsen-on.html
It's because no one cares dad.