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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 Dunbal on Friday May 19 2017, @09:28PM (6 children)
Much easier than that: As an Ecuadorian citizen Assange can be listed as part of embassy staff. Then he can be officially given the diplomatic bag to take to Ecuador. The holder of the diplomatic bag has ABSOLUTE immunity and cannot be arrested. If the UK does this - well, their diplomats everywhere and anywhere can be arrested and UK diplomatic documents seized.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Friday May 19 2017, @10:46PM
None of that helps us to recreate that scene in Spies Like Us where a huge box is shipped to Ecuador, you pop open the front, and see Assange in a recliner with beer cans and empty pork rind bags laying around him....
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday May 19 2017, @11:22PM (1 child)
So why are they not doing that? it seems very simple and cost effective.
The story has a lot of similarities with József Mindszenty in 1956 who fled the Soviet intrigues and had to stay inside the US Embassy for 15 years and then got a negotiated free pass out. And these types of events seems to have a history back until 1726 [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by Dunbal on Saturday May 20 2017, @03:38AM
Because the UK would probably just grab him anyway.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Unixnut on Saturday May 20 2017, @01:33AM (2 children)
Much easier than that: As an Ecuadorian citizen Assange can be listed as part of embassy staff. Then he can be officially given the diplomatic bag to take to Ecuador. The holder of the diplomatic bag has ABSOLUTE immunity and cannot be arrested. If the UK does this - well, their diplomats everywhere and anywhere can be arrested and UK diplomatic documents seized.
Hmm, I don't know. the UK (and the USA and other NATO countries) have clearly shown consistent disregard for international law when it is in their interest, on the pretext of "might makes right". Assange and Snowden are great examples, such as with the grounding of the Bolivian presidents plane on the suspicion Snowden was on it, and the UN itself lambasted the UK for their behavior against Assange as a violation of international law, to which the response from the UK was the diplomatic equivalent of the middle finger.
Not to mention the kidnap and torture of people. and the invading, bombing, forced redrawing of borders and overthrowing foreign governments if they are not subservient enough. All of which are violations of international law as well. Quite frankly it would be quicker to list the times that international law had not been violated by them.
I can fully imagine they take action if they had to, and claim this was a "one off", or otherwise threaten retribution to any countries that wish to reciprocate such action against their diplomats. Hypocrisy is pretty much a requirement in politics from what I can see, so would not surprise me for it to happen.
Of course, I try to not be a complete pessimist all the time, so I am hopeful this is really the end for Assange, and he can get out of that place as a free man (what an awful life, so many years stuck in a tiny London flat. That sofa he has been sleeping on all this time must really reek by now).
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday May 20 2017, @08:33AM (1 child)
What? You reckon they'd arrest the sofa as well if it goes out to be cleaned, or changed?
Or are you of the people that never clean or change sofas?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 20 2017, @03:46PM
They send it out to be cleaned and it comes back with bugs.