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posted by martyb on Monday October 11 2021, @05:07PM   Printer-friendly
from the what-a-wicked-web-we-weave... dept.

Key witness in Assange case jailed in Iceland after admitting to lies and ongoing crime spree

Sigurdur Thordarson, a key witness for the FBI against Julian Assange, has been jailed in Iceland. The notorious alleged hacker and convicted pedophile was remanded to custody in Iceland's highest security prison, Litla Hraun, on September 24. Þórðarson´s lawyer, Húnbogi J. Andersen, confirms that he is in custody. Thordarson was given immunity by the FBI in exchange for testimony against Julian Assange.

Thordarson was arrested the same day he arrived back in Iceland from a trip to Spain, and was subsequently brought before a judge after police requested indefinite detention intended to halt an ongoing crime spree. The judge apparently agreed that Thordarson's repeated, blatant and ongoing offences against the law put him at high risk for continued re-offending.

[...] Thordarson is a key witness for the United States Justice Department according to documents presented to a UK court in an effort to secure the extradition of Julian Assange. He was recruited by US authorities to build a case against Assange after misleading them to believe he was previously a close associate of his. In a recent interview with Stundin he admitted to fabricating statements to implicate Assange and contradicted what he was quoted as saying in US court documents. In fact he had volunteered on a limited basis to raise money for Wikileaks in 2010 but was found to have used that opportunity to embezzle more than $50,000 from the organization. Julian Assange was visiting Thordarson's home country of Iceland around this time due to his work with Icelandic media and members of parliament in preparing the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative, a press freedom project that produced a parliamentary resolution supporting whistleblowers and investigative journalism.


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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Mykl on Monday October 11 2021, @10:14PM (2 children)

    by Mykl (1112) on Monday October 11 2021, @10:14PM (#1186300)

    It's still taking a while for his case to be taken seriously by our government, because the Prime Minister at the time of the Chelsea Manning leak (John Howard) was furiously rolling onto his back in front of Bush Jr in an attempt to have his belly rubbed.

    The Government at the time (Liberal/National Coalition) did everything they could to distance themselves from Assange and basically said to the US: "Do whatever you want". Public sentiment began to become much more sympathetic to Assange as more information came to light, and I think it was a factor that helped lead to the Lib/Nat defeat in 2007. Despite that, the new Labor Government didn't seem to care much more about Assange either.

    Most Australians would like to see Assange freed, and there's finally enough recognition at the Government level that Assange's 1-way pre-booked ticket to Gitmo is not going to go well with the voters in Aus. I think the US believes the diplomatic fallout of stringing Assange up is manageable however, and so will ignore Australia's current representations.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 12 2021, @05:15AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 12 2021, @05:15AM (#1186355)

    Yup, even if our government got behind it - I doubt the US will care much. We're desperate and the US knows it as well - with Chinese White Elephant finally being called out (kudos to Scomo - don't like him much but at least he didn't turn like Kevin Rudd and called the South China Sea Bully for what it is), we need allies to meet that threat and the only option is the US and the US knows this too. So Assange is screwed in terms "effective" of help from his own government.

  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday October 12 2021, @03:38PM

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Tuesday October 12 2021, @03:38PM (#1186437) Homepage
    Yeah, but think of the subs. Even one sub's better than a tormented lothario.
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves