Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno traveled to London on Friday for the ostensible purpose of speaking at the 2018 Global Disabilities Summit (Moreno has been using a wheelchair since being shot in a 1998 robbery attempt). The concealed, actual purpose of the President's trip is to meet with British officials to finalize an agreement under which Ecuador will withdraw its asylum protection of Julian Assange, in place since 2012, eject him from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, and then hand over the WikiLeaks founder to British authorities.
Moreno's itinerary also notably includes a trip to Madrid, where he will meet with Spanish officials still seething over Assange's denunciation of human rights abuses perpetrated by Spain's central government against protesters marching for Catalonia independence. Almost three months ago, Ecuador blocked Assange from accessing the internet, and Assange has not been able to communicate with the outside world ever since. The primary factor in Ecuador's decision to silence him was Spanish anger over Assange's tweets about Catalonia. A source close to the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry and the President's office, unauthorized to speak publicly, has confirmed to the Intercept that Moreno is close to finalizing, if he has not already finalized, an agreement to hand over Assange to the UK within the next several weeks. The withdrawal of asylum and physical ejection of Assange could come as early as this week. On Friday, RT reported that Ecuador was preparing to enter into such an agreement.
[...] The central oddity of Assange's case – that he has been effectively imprisoned for eight years despite never having been charged with, let alone convicted of, any crime – is virtually certain to be prolonged once Ecuador hands him over to the U.K. Even under the best-case scenario, it appears highly likely that Assange will continue to be imprisoned by British authorities. The only known criminal proceeding Assange currently faces is a pending 2012 arrest warrant for "failure to surrender" – basically a minor bail violation that arose when he obtained asylum from Ecuador rather than complying with bail conditions by returning to court for a hearing on his attempt to resist extradition to Sweden. That offense carries a prison term of three months and a fine, though it is possible that the time Assange has already spent in prison in the UK could be counted against that sentence. In 2010, Assange was imprisoned in Wandsworth Prison, kept in isolation, for 10 days until he was released on bail; he was then under house arrest for 550 days at the home of a supporter.
Assange's lawyer, Jen Robinson, told the Intercept that he would argue that all of that prison time already served should count toward (and thus completely fulfill) any prison term imposed on the "failure to surrender" charge, though British prosecutors would almost certainly contest that claim. Assange would also argue that he had a reasonable, valid basis for seeking asylum rather than submitting to UK authorities: namely, well-grounded fear that he would be extradited to the U.S. for prosecution for the act of publishing documents.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Thexalon on Monday July 23 2018, @03:06PM (5 children)
All available evidence points to "no". Sweden has since dropped the underlying charges.
The UK and Swedish justice system both gave him a very good reason to distrust them. Specifically, Assange's lawyers offered that Assange go willingly to Sweden for pre-trial questioning in exchange for a promise that Sweden would not turn him over to US custody, and Sweden refused that offer. Assange's lawyers also offered that the pre-trial questioning in question occur in the Ecuador embassy or over video-conferencing, and Sweden took years to agree to that. Given that pattern, it was not unreasonable for Assange to assume that the point of these charges is to get Assange in physical custody and ship him to the US so he can get the Chelsea (nee Bradley) Manning treatment of years of torture. All this despite the fact that there's zero evidence that Assange has committed any crime within US jurisdiction.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday July 23 2018, @04:56PM (4 children)
Has he committed the crime he has been accused of?
All available evidence points to "no". Sweden has since dropped the underlying charges.
There are outstanding charges in the UK for skipping bail. Which is pretty easy to prove he committed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 23 2018, @06:18PM (3 children)
Why not just change it to resisting arrest?
Let's play identity politics. It's my favorite game!
Skipping bail in the absence of any other charge: what the police state is like to white people.
Resisting arrest in the absence of any other charge: what the police state is like to black people.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 23 2018, @07:34PM (1 child)
But here in Russia we are all equal. Everyone just get charged with failure to comply with good policeman's lawful demands.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 23 2018, @07:59PM
OMG Russia! That changes everything! Comintern! Stalin! Putin! Election meddling!
*cowers under bedsheets in fear of the Russian election hacking alt-right incels!*
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Tuesday July 24 2018, @06:16AM
Because he hasn't resisted arrest. He has broken the terms of his bail conditions. You can't just manufacture charges based on what you imagine would sound more impressive in front of a judge. You have to base charges on the law of the land.