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Quizmonster | 07:50 Mon 18th Aug 2014 | News
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According to Sky News this morning...the ticker-tape strip at the bottom of the screen...Julian Assange is thinking of leaving the Ecuadorian embassy. If he does, I hope his feet scarcely touch UK soil before he is whisked aboard a Scandinavian aircraft and bustled off to Stockholm!
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Would justice be served if he eventually found himself doing a long term in an American prison?
08:00 Mon 18th Aug 2014
Good to see so much enthusiasm to assist the US here, very unusual!
The USA hasn't even said they want to extradite him have they? It is Sweden that wants him. Assange has it would seem built up a frenzy of opinion and belief that he is "wanted in the US" as an excuse for him hiding from Swedish justice.
Remind me - what did he do ?
Published a lot of documents that were stolen from the US by by the real culprit Bradley Manning.
Personally I don't think he did an awful lot wrong other than be a right sanctimonious so and so, painting himself as the guardian of the world's morals and free speech but spoiling it rather by his other er alleged actions (allegations of sexual assault in Sweden not helped by his attempt to run away from his accusers: it's not as if he's been pursued by some dubious dictatorship) and being rather more protective of his own privacy than he is prepared to be of other people's
I heard the bit on BBC News about him costing the UK £7m during his 2 years here but not the start of the sentence saying what this spending involved. Can anyone fill me in on the detail?

The police vigil outside the embassy is costing at least £11,000 per day.
Thanks, jomlett.

Blimey! If I knew there was that much money in standing around, with my hands behind my back, trying my best not to look bored out of my wits, I'd be undercover, organising the protest anti-Assange protest marches…
;-)
those plods are good money!
Serious question:

What if he leaves in a Diplomatic Bag?:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplomatic_bag

I only ask because the blurb on the BBC site says:

The plan, as always, is to leave as soon as the UK government decides to honour its obligations in relation to international agreements.

Is it all part of his ruse?
Well ChillDoubt he has had plenty of time to think about avenues to leave! This could be his best bet!

The Swedish judicial system has been badly exposed in this affair. The initial prosecutor decided there would be no investigation and it was only after a review that the case would be followed up but what has followed has been theatrical. Assange's team are and must be confident that the case will be revoked.

I do agree with much of ichkeria's posts. Assange is unpredictable and who knows how this deadlock of cat and mouse will end up.

The diplomatic bag may well be having its finishing touches being applied....

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CD, your link re diplomatic bags says, "It may only contain articles intended for official use." I'm no lawyer, but I can't see how a human being can - other than figuratively - be considered to be an "article". Nor am I sure of what conceivable "use" the discredited skulker might now be to anyone.
But look at the noteworthy shipments section QM.
They've been used in similar attempts before, can be the size of a shipping container and have diplomatic immunity from search or seizure.
Given Assange's propensity for embarrassing governments I'd say it's not beyond the bounds of his reasoning!
Question Author
An interesting list of noteworthy shipments, CD. Who knows...
if Churchill had been deprived of his cigars, we might have lost the war!
It appears that a diplomatic bag has been used only twice, as far as we know, in an attempt to move a person and neither worked.
Perhaps the UK government might 'delay' anything large from the Ecuadorian embassy for a week or two in a goods-shed at Heathrow. When the squealing and hammering started, they might open the crate as an act of purest humanity!
The Swedish authorities have refused to interview him at the assembly stating it is vital he is interviewed in Sweden. He faces no charges, just questioning. They have until 2020 to sort otherwise case has to be dropped. The Swedish prosecutors have made several errors in this matter. There is purportedly also to be ample evidence they are holding demonstrating his innocence which they have not released. There has been no movement in two years and the Swedes must take a high degree of the blame for this.

The US for their part have also not prepared any legal case and certainly not an extradition request. In any event, the Swedes would not do so knowing that the death penalty is an option.

The notion that Assange has fled his accusers on the alleged rapes and must therefore be guilty is nonsense. There is a process of law and it remains to be seen if indeed he is charged and tried. The Swedish judiciary have left themselves wide open for criticism.
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I know nothing about the Swedish legal system or any statute of limitations...ie "closing-date"...practised there. However, surely time the potential 'culprit' has spent actively avoiding proceedings would not count. If 2020 does mark such a closure-point, then I dearly hope they DO sort it out by then!
QM - I believe it is 5 years 9 months relating to rape charges which forms part of the accusations.

Assange's actions wrong-footed the Swedish authorities who, nevertheless, have failed to deal adequately or decently in the matter. The insistence of speaking to him in Sweden is in violation of their obligation in law to deal swiftly and fairly. There is meant to be a case to answer but after two years of preparation there has been a failure of disclosure and purpose.

Assange, despite reports of emerging 'soon' ( whatever that means) will be prepared to sit tight.
The 2020 date is correct but it is 5 years for 'unlawful coercion' and 10 for rape.
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"The insistence of speaking to him in Sweden is in violation of their obligation in law to deal swiftly and fairly."
Ag, they may not have dealt "swiftly and fairly" with him, but whose fault is that, if not Assange's? If he'd simply gone there to start with, the whole thing would doubtless have been over by now, possibly even including any light sentence he may have been given.
In addition, since when - and where - has an accused ever been allowed to set the terms under which he is to be questioned? "The Americans will execute me" has never been anything other than a smokescreen.
He is at the embassy because President Correa of Equador granted an indefinite stay. Assange was willing to return to Sweden who could not guarantee under their laws that he wouldn't be handed over to the US.

The onus is on the Swedish to prove their case and disclosing documentation in advance. The accused does not dictate the terms of questionning as you rightly say, but asylum was granted by another state and Sweden has not diverted from its one track approach. Call it playing the system, but not everything is straightforward.
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Ag, if the Americans were in a position to present a case - valid under Swedish law - as to why Assange should be extradited to the USA, then he should clearly be sent there as far as I am concerned, if he ever turns up on Swedish soil!
Neither you nor I were present in either of the Swedish women's bedrooms when the alleged offences were committed, so we have NO idea what the truth of the matter is. Assange may well be as innocent as the day is long, but the only way that will be established is in a court of Swedish law, if the questioning process even leads to a trial.
Accordingly, that questioning must be - not only carried out - but carried out according to the methods set by the Swedish judicial authorities, not methods chosen by Assange.

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