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Julian Assange seeking asylum in Ecuadorian embassy in London

by artappraiser 6/20/2012 - 12:41 am

By Esther Addley and Beatrice Wolf, guardian.co.uk, June 19, 2012

Julian Assange has dramatically sought political asylum at the Ecuadorean embassy in London, days after the supreme court rejected the last of his appeals against extradition to Sweden to face sex crime accusations and after what he called a "declaration of abandonment" by his own government in Australia.

In a move that appears to have surprised even some of his closest supporters, the Wikileaks founder walked into the country's embassy in Knightsbridge and asked for asylum, citing the UN declaration of human rights [.....]

Also see @ guardian.co.uk:

Ecuador's free speech record at odds with Julian Assange's bid for openness
By Brian Braiker,  June 19, 2012

[.....] Ecuador's justice system and record on free speech have been called into question by Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and Amnesty International.

"I think this is ironic that you have a journalist, or an activist, seeking political asylum from a government that has – after Cuba – the poorest record of free speech in the region, and the practice of persecuting local journalists when the government is upset by their opinions or their research," José Miguel Vivanco, director of Human Rights Watch's Americas division, told the Guardian.

Vivanco points out that in April of 2011, Ecuador expelled the US ambassador Heather Hodges over diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks alleging widespread corruption within the Ecuadorian police [.....]

and:

Julian Assange's haven of choice
By Julian Borger, June 19, 2012

Britain's diplomatic relations with Ecuador have historically been low-key but cordial. However, the 2007 election of a socialist president Rafael Correa, led to a sharp change of direction in the Latin American state's foreign policy, away from the US and its regional allies and towards a radical bloc led by Venezuela.

In 2009, Correa closed a US military base, renounced Ecuador's national debt and joined the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (Alba) created by the Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez as a counterweight to western influence in Latin America, alongside Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia [.....]

Read the full article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/jun/19/julian-assange-wikileaks-asylum-ecuador

He's not choosing Ecuador for their record on free speech, he's choosing because they are less influenced by the US than many other nations. He must expect that after a brief hearing on rape charges, Sweden will just hand him over to the US.

by Donal 6/20/2012 - 9:06 am

The radical bloc wont mind humiliating the US either. 

Your free to speak if they agree with your position and it benefits thier cause.

by Resistance 6/20/2012 - 9:37 am (re: Donal)

Dear Julian....

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/06/201262212304874114.html

by artappraiser 6/22/2012 - 7:18 pm
I'm sure the correspondant believes that her "concern trolling " makes for cute journalism, but Assange is not currently in a position to parse the transparency commitment of a potential refuge. It is, as they. say, his ass that is at stake. I hope he has chosen well.
by jollyroger 6/22/2012 - 10:49 pm (re: artappraiser)
Well, thank you, Jesus! Looks like the good guys win for a change. You are invited to help defray the forfeited bail.
by jollyroger 6/23/2012 - 7:09 pm

Definition of paranoia: supporters of Julian Assange
The right does not have a monopoly on paranoia, as the conspiratorial fantasies of the backers of Julian Assange show

By Nick Cohen, The Observer @ guardian.co.uk, June 23, 2012

by artappraiser 6/25/2012 - 4:51 am
Cohen is an utter ass. He is using. the language of due process for a government that has cast itself adrift from any suchu niceties. First Amendment? Give me a break, we continue holding 63 detainees (term of art) at Gitmo who were cleared for release. Furthermore, and not irrelevant, the "rape" in question was consensual sex during which the rubber broke..glad I've never gotten lucky in Sweden.
by jollyroger 6/25/2012 - 6:58 am (re: artappraiser)

2nd of all, they never questioned Assange despite a month's opportunity, the ladies in question coordinated their stories, he's never been charged with a crime, and the warrant for questioning was produced just after he'd stepped on a plane to Berlin and had his checked laptops conveniently "lost" on a low-occupied flight.

by PeraclesPlease 6/25/2012 - 7:38 am (re: jollyroger)

The legal calculus behind Assange's asylum request
Posted By Elias Groll, Passport @ ForeignPolicy.com, June 25, 2012

....According to media reports, a secret grand jury has been impaneled in Virginia to look into offenses carried out by Assange and his organization though the scope of the case is unknown.

....because the nature of that indictment remains unknown, Assange's decision to seek asylum is nothing short of a brilliant strategy of risk-minimization....

Sweden and the United States have a scant history of extraditions, and some observers have argued that if the U.S. sought to extradite Assange from Sweden, American authorities would be able to easily bully the Swedes into turning over the prized fugitive.  On this point, recent history offers conflicting lessons....

Charging Assange under the Espionage Act will in all likelihood do nothing to get the man into an American courtroom. The Justice Department, presumably, is aware of this fact and will seek to bring more creative charges against Assange. But avoiding an explicit espionage charge, does not mean that Swedish authorities will grant the extradition request....

by artappraiser 6/26/2012 - 2:28 am

It's not just extradition to worry about - it's "extraordinary extrajudicial renditions":

Ahmed Agiza (Arabic: أحمد عجيزة‎) and Muhammad Alzery (Arabic: محمد الزيري‎) (also Elzari, el-Zary, etc.) were two Egyptian asylum-seekers who were deported to Egypt from Sweden on December 18, 2001, apparently following a request from the United States Central Intelligence Agency.[1] The forced repatriation was criticised because of the danger of torture and ill treatment, and because the deportation decision was executed the same day without notifying the lawyers of the asylum seekers. The deportation was carried out by American and Egyptian personnel on Swedish ground, with Swedish servicemen apparently as passive onlookers.

Sweden had negotiated guarantees from Egypt, which were found to be inadequate. There are strong allegations that both men were tortured, but Sweden has been unable to prove or disprove these allegations, due to refusal by Egyptian authorities to allow proper investigations. Alzery was released without charges after two years in prison, but was not allowed to leave his village, nor could he speak to foreigners. Agiza was sentenced to 15 years in prison in a military tribunal.[2] He was finally released from prison on August 9, 2011.[3] The process was not considered fair, and there is doubt as to the men's guilt.

Sweden alleges that the two men had been involved in acts of terrorism, but no basis for such beliefs have been disclosed. When pressed by reporters, Swedish authorities mentioned alleged earlier convictions in Egypt, but these allegations turned out to be patently wrong. As a complicating factor, the decision was made at cabinet level, by Foreign Affairs minister Anna Lindh, who was murdered in 2003, before the scandal broke loose.

 

by PeraclesPlease 6/26/2012 - 2:44 am (re: artappraiser)

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