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Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956
Judge blasts Assange for jumping bail, sentences him to almost one year
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for fleeing to the Ecuadorian embassy in London while on bail in 2012. At the time, he was facing possible extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges.
Assange remained in the embassy until last month, when he was evicted by his Ecuadorian hosts and re-arrested by British authorities.
Wednesday's sentencing is unlikely to be the end of Assange's legal problems. Shortly after he was re-arrested last month, US authorities unsealed an indictment charging him with conspiring with Chelsea Manning to crack a hashed password belonging to a Pentagon computer in 2010. At the time, Manning was an Army private leaking confidential military documents to WikiLeaks. Assange was unable to learn the password, but the US argues that his attempt is sufficient to charge him with conspiracy.
In a letter to the court, Assange argued that he had fled to the embassy out of fear that he'd be extradited to the United States and wind up being held indefinitely at the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Also at BBC, The Guardian, CNET, and The Register.
Previously: Inadvertent Court Filing Suggests that the U.S. DoJ is Preparing to Indict Julian Assange
U.S. Ramping Up Probe Against Julian Assange, WikiLeaks Says
Ecuador Denies That Julian Assange Will be Evicted From Embassy in London
Wikileaks Co-Founder Julian Assange Arrested at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London
Julian Assange Associate Arrested In Ecuador
Original Submission #1 Original Submission #2 Original Submission #3
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @07:16PM (7 children)
"Julian Assange has never been charged with anything in Sweden. He was merely “wanted for questioning”, a fact the MSM repeatedly failed to make clear. It is now undeniably plain that there was never the slightest intention of charging him with anything in Sweden. All those Blairite MPs who seek to dodge the glaring issue of freedom of the media to publish whistleblower material revealing government crimes, by hiding behind trumped-up sexual allegations, are left looking pretty stupid."
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2019/04/so-where-is-the-swedish-warrant/ [craigmurray.org.uk]
(Score: 3, Informative) by bussdriver on Wednesday May 01 2019, @07:52PM
They will have to pull even more crazy stuff to bring expired laws back. Even then the main crime they started with in Sweden was a dead law their court threw out before that 2 experts back then said would be similar to "involuntary rape" in the USA which is why it failed to be successfully used before wikileaks. Making the whole thing even less credible; aside from the fact they dropped the whole thing and let him leave their country until another the USA found another official to bring up charges to grab him. Remember, years later saying they couldn't do video interviews despite doing video interviews for MURDER suspects.
The PURPOSE is to make an example out of anybody who messes with the empire even if they are not under jurisdiction or working as press. The smear campaign (some of which was leaked) has continued and worked pretty well. Assange hasn't helped himself either... Any FAIR person would give him time served, 9 years vs 1 of a nice British prison... If he had known that was all, he'd have volunteered to only lose 1 year of his life.
NOTE: Hillary people FORGET it was the FBI, not Wikileaks! She rebounded from the email leak; the email issue existed before the leak. The last second illegal FBI announcment about NEW emails that came from her assistant's laptop; had nothing to do with Wikileaks. Mostly likely it would have had a BIGGER negative impact if it wasn't the 2nd leak of her emails. But forget that, we love Comey now so lets forget the attack on the Free Press.
(Score: 2, Informative) by ikanreed on Wednesday May 01 2019, @08:01PM
I do appreciate the lie [bbc.com]. The wikipedia sources linking the text of the original warrant have fallen off the internet, but the media reporting at the time show pretty clearly there was a EU arrest warrant issued, the necessary item you're saying never existed.
(Score: 3, Informative) by isostatic on Wednesday May 01 2019, @08:02PM (3 children)
His argument was that by being extradited to Sweden he would then get passed to the U.S.. It's a load off bullshit, as the U.S. could have just as easilly extradited him from the U.K
The warrant that Sweden was using to get him to answer questions was a European Arrest Warrant, in the same way that Devon and Cornwall police can arrest someone who they believe has gone to Birmingham. No need for charges before arresting someone.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @08:11PM (1 child)
You have compared extradition laws between the countries?
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday May 02 2019, @08:31AM
Yes, it's far easier to extradite from the UK than from Sweden.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Wednesday May 01 2019, @09:14PM
I disagree. I'm pretty sure that obtaining extradition on somebody not currently under detention requires filing an Interpol Red Notice in order to get the person detained, which may or may not work as expected. That requires the cooperation of Interpol. It has far less likelihood of working if the respondent can show that the Red Notice was filed for political reasons or part of a political crime. If someone is already in custody in another country then the extradition process is considerably simplified. "You don't need to arrest that person, they're already in gaol in your country." It would have been considerably easier on the U.S. to launch extradition proceedings if he had been extradited to Sweden. Just as easy as it is now that he is in custody in England. The key words being, "in custody." So the U.S. didn't need Sweden the second that he jumped bail in the U.K. and they knew the Brits would play along.
I invite correction from someone who has actual knowledge about the process.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Thursday May 02 2019, @04:09AM
I saw something in some article saying the original complain was from a woman who had no evidence, and who had already been kicked out of Cuba for working with the CIA. I have no idea if it's true or not, and I'm assuming reality is falling apart anyway.