Despite a demand early today from British police that he show up at a London Police Station “at a date and time of our choosing,” WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has said he will not do so, citing legal advice.
“Our advice is that asylum law both internationally and domestically takes precedence over extradition law so almost certainly not,” Assange said of his chances of actually showing up at a police station. His spokeswoman later confirmed he wasn’t going, saying the legal advice was to allow the asylum process to play out first.
Two weeks ago the British Courts rejected Assange’s last appeal to avoid extradition to Sweden as “without merit,” and he is currently in the Ecuador Embassy in London awaiting on decision on whether the South American nation will grant him asylum.
Sweden is seeking Assange in relation to sex charges, but his lawyers have argued that Sweden might subsequently “trade” Assange to the US, where officials have called him a “terrorist” and called for his execution. Britain would never extradite him to the US, but apparently will do so to Sweden, which is why asylum is being sought.
If there was any sanity and justice in this crazy, mixed-up world Julian Assange would be given the Nobel Peace Prize, and war mongering criminals like Bush, Blair, Obama, etc., would be locked up in prison to protect the planet.
@bruce- I could not agree with you more!
Ehud Barack Obama's secret service agents should be prosecuted for sex crimes.
It's quite legal for a reporter, accredited or otherwise, to report information freely given. So if Mr. Assange had no part in the hacking then he should have nothing to worry about. If the contention of the Feds is correct, and Mr. Assange assisted Mr. Manning to hack the State Department cables, then he is indeed guilty of espionage, and should be cleaning toilets in Guantanamo.