WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is finally being questioned by prosecutors more than six years after he was first accused of rape in Sweden.
Ingrid Isgren, Sweden's deputy chief prosecutor, arrived at the Ecuadorian Embassy this morning, according to The Guardian, ending a stalemate which began in 2012 when the South American nation offered Assange political asylum on the grounds that he faced political persecution from the United States.
Assange claims that the rape accusations, which he denies, are part of a plot to extradite him to the United States that would swing into action were he to answer prosecutors' questions in the Scandinavian country.
The interview suggests some forward movement is being made in the diplomatic deadlock between Ecuador and Sweden regarding the arrangements for Swedish prosecutors to talk to Assange in the embassy.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Tuesday November 15 2016, @10:06AM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Tuesday November 15 2016, @01:29PM
I researched this and from what I can tell in the UK there are civil statute of limitations but no criminal, and the EU convention on human rights was getting kinda butthurt about that particular UK tradition. Something about right to a rapid trial, and you can't expect someone to defend themselves for spitting on the sidewalk 45 years later. So until he dies he could be extradited to UK for bail jumping.
Some former british empire colonies have a statute of limitations concept at least in part, either New Zealand or Australia I can't remember which. And the colonies in the USA obviously.
The problem is CIA torture as punishment for what he did and all that kind of corrupt non-judicial stuff. If he was just an average joe and merely jumped bail for public intoxication or some BS like that, the maximum penalty is extremely light by USA standards from memory its a couple hundred brit-bucks and a mere 90 days in the slammer as an absolute maximum. For a guy trapped in an embassy for half a decade a couple weeks in the slammer is no big deal and somehow I think he could raise a large multiple of a couple hundred bucks for legal expenses if he needed to.