 |
| Photograph: Geoff Caddick/AFP/Getty Images |
guardian.co.uk today reports:
"Julian Assange has lost his appeal against extradition to Sweden at the supreme court.
By a majority of five to two, the justices decided that a public prosecutor was "judicial authority" and that therefore his arrest warrant had been lawfully issued.
But lawyers for the WikiLeaks founder submitted an urgent request to the supreme court asking for permission to challenge one of the points made in the judgment.
Assange, who is facing charges of sexual assault and rape, was not in court. There was no legal requirement for him to be present. According to his solicitor, Gareth Peirce, he was stuck in traffic
The court granted Assange's lawyers 14 days to present their arguments that crucial issues related to Article 31 of the Vienna convention, on which the majority of the justices based their decision, were not raised during the hearing.
Assange's lawyers can also, at the same time, begin the process of appealing against the judgment to the European court of human rights in Strasbourg."
---So we have another delay, even if this last emergency application hinges on a crucial legal point in all democracies. No one should be judged on grounds that the involved parties haven´t been able to discuss in the case. If it is true, it would be a bit tragicomic that such a fundamental mistake is made in a high-profile case by the finest judges, but shit does happen...
Meanwhile the Assange camp is throwing all the dirt they can get their hands on, and then some, on Sweden here: http://justice4assange.com/
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link, buddy. It is true that they have done what they can to vilify the Swedish judicial system and are doing what they can to portray our laws as those of a banana-republic, simply because they are constructed in a different way then their own.
DeleteIf they took the time to learn and understand it they would - I am sure - find that there are several ways of reaching the same goals, without one way being better than the other.
But Sweden will survive their attacks, what is even more worrying to me is the way in which the two female victims are being hung out to dry and portrayed as malicious, scheming, bitches for not putting up with Julian Assange´s activity.
However the case against Julian Assange turns out in the end, that is the most shameful part of this drama.