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Swedish prosecutor has decided to discontinue the investigation against Julian Assange, who has been accused of sex crimes in Sweden. If this means that Julian is free to leave the embassy to go to Ecuador or not remains to be seen.
takyon: It does not mean that Assange is free to leave the embassy at this time, although his lawyer is asking for an arrest warrant to be dropped:
The London Metropolitan Police, however, made it clear in a statement that there is an outstanding arrest warrant for Assange. "Westminster Magistrates' Court issued a warrant for the arrest of Julian Assange following him failing to surrender to the court on the 29 June 2012. The Metropolitan Police Service is obliged to execute that warrant should he leave the Embassy," it read.
The maximum penalty for breaching bail is up to a year in prison or a fine.
The police also recognized that Assange is now "wanted for a much less serious offense" and said they would "provide a level of resourcing which is proportionate to that offense."
It remains unclear whether there is a standing U.S. extradition order for Assange. The policy of Britain's Home Office is to neither confirm nor deny extradition orders until such time as a person has been arrested in relation to an order. Last month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he was stepping up efforts to arrest Assange as part of a broader fight against those who leak secrets into the public domain.
Also at BBC and The Guardian.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday May 19 2017, @08:05PM (7 children)
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday May 19 2017, @08:13PM (6 children)
Ok. I just wouldn't expect justice for someone who was a congress critter. But strange things happen.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 19 2017, @08:52PM (5 children)
> Ok. I just wouldn't expect justice for someone who was a congress critter
Seems like it happens often enough. Here's an incomplete list of recent sitting members of congress who were sentenced to prison:
Michael Grimm - 8 months in prison
Rick Renzi - 3 months in prison
William Jefferson - 13 years in prison
James Traficant - 8 years in prison
Nicholas Mavroules - 15 months in prison
Mel Reynolds - 6 years in prison
Walter R Tucker III 27 months in prison
Dan Rostenkowski - 15 months in prison
Joseph Kolter - 6 months in prison
Bob Ney - 17 months in prison (this was the guy who invented freedom fries)
And of course Dennis Hastert got a 15 month prison sentence, like Weiner he was not in congress at the time of his indictment.
There are probably more former congress members who got prison sentences too, I'm just too lazy to look for them.
The point being that for all of our flaws, in America we still do hold power to account on a regular basis.
We aren't perfect, but we are better than most other countries. Don't let them trick you into believing otherwise.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 20 2017, @01:15AM (4 children)
Heh. Haha. That's a good one.
The people you vote for are not the people running things. The career bureaucrats of the "shadow government" who can be drained from the swamp are not the people running things, either.
You are all cows, etc.
(Score: 1) by charon on Saturday May 20 2017, @04:41AM (3 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 20 2017, @05:24AM (2 children)
Nice strawman
(Score: 1) by charon on Sunday May 21 2017, @01:35AM (1 child)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 21 2017, @02:48PM
AC upvote for insightful