JUICY JULIUS DECISION RE SWEDISH EXTRADITION

Entertainment & Arts
28 October 2011 Last updated at 17:55

Assange extradition ruling due in High Court

Julian Assange: "No member of Wikileaks has been charged with anything anywhere in the world"

The founder of the Wikileaks website, Julian Assange, is to learn next week if he has won a High Court bid to block extradition to Sweden.

Lawyers for the 40-year-old Australian, who is facing sex crime allegations, say his removal would be "unfair and unlawful".

Two judges in London heard the case in July and are due to give their ruling next Wednesday.

Mr Assange denies the allegations and says they are politically motivated.

Speaking to BBC World after his extradition ruling date was announced, Mr Assange said: "I have been under house arrest for the last 334 days but haven't been charged.

"Is the rule of law breaking down under that circumstance?

"It appears that it's effectively breaking down and you ask if I am afraid of this extradition, well, we will fight in various ways. Of course it's a serious reality we have to deal with."

Mr Assange's Wikileaks site published a mass of leaked diplomatic cables which have embarrassed several governments and international businesses.

The Swedish authorities want him to answer accusations of raping one woman and sexually molesting and coercing another in Stockholm in August last year.

The High Court in London is deciding whether or not to uphold a ruling in February by District Judge Howard Riddle, at Belmarsh Magistrates' Court, south London.

That ruling decided the computer expert should be extradited to face investigation.

Oh and his memoirs has apparently bombed!

Julian Assange memoir misses out on book chart

Canongate Books said the majority of the book's reviews were positive

Assange angry over memoir release
Unauthorised Assange book due out

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's memoirs failed to top the bestsellers' book chart after shifting just 644 copies in its first three days on sale.

Julian Assange: The Unauthorised Autobiography was the 50th best-selling hardback non-fiction book of the week, according to Nielsen BookScan.

Mr Assange has said it is a draft and was published without his approval.

But publishers Canongate Books claim he initially agreed to it and had signed a contract with them.

They insisted the book "explains both the man and his work, underlining his commitment to the truth" and he had already accepted an advance for the book, which has not been paid back.

Referring to the sale of the book, they said: "We never made any big predictions about the sales of the Assange book - particularly on the first three days of sale."

"There was no build up for the book trade, the media or with the reading public. But we're proud of the way we handled what has been a difficult and unusual launch," they added.

Oh, goodie! He surfaced last week addressing the flotsam and jetsam cluttering up St Paul's.

Odd place for a megalomaniac rich boy to show up, but hey ho.

I can't see much interest in his life story, frankly. What does it say?

I am a geek who advertises for girlfriends, I got rich by leaking material and endangering other people's lives, my d*ck is so wonderful and AIDS-proof, I refuse to use condoms?

That certainly made a strange photo of him last week in front of St Pauls in the middle of his disciples?

Those Anonymous protesters are his kind of people, aren't they? They will buy his book.

Oh, I keep running into a Julian look alike when I'm out walking my dog. It's really strange.........

I find it difficult to believe that he can be extradited for something that isn't a crime in UK. This is the essence of Extradition. In UK it wouldn't be Rape, but it might be Assault, but this is not what he has been accused of.

On the other hand, I don't really care personally because he is an unpleasant character, but then I don't think much of the women either.

Is it still being neutral if you don't like ANYONE involved in these things?

bb1 wrote:Is it still being neutral if you don't like ANYONE involved in these things?

I think it's called pitch forking, Bonny.

Sabot wrote:
I find it difficult to believe that he can be extradited for something that isn't a crime in UK. This is the essence of Extradition. In UK it wouldn't be Rape, but it might be Assault, but this is not what he has been accused of.

On the other hand, I don't really care personally because he is an unpleasant character, but then I don't think much of the women either.

It is nothing to do with the law in the UK, it is a case being brought against him in Sweden, who have the right to ask for his extradition to answer the charges brought against him by Swedish woman and alleged to have been committed on Swedish soil, not in the UK. If he had not fled in the first place, but had agreed to answer the charges in Sweden, as rape is rather hard to prove he might well have got away with whatever he is accused of, be it rape, sexual assault, bodily harm or consensual as he is claiming. But he ran, and that makes it worse, as it implies he has something to hide or that what the women are claiming may well be the truth. As the Swedish judiciary asked for his extradition they must have a very good case; the Swedes are not given to the kind of behaviour to be expected from certain other countries I can think of. LL

ETA. It's not extradition to Sweden he is afraid of, it's that the Swedes will agree to his extradition to the USA to face charges of treason which carries the death penalty.

Sabot wrote:
In UK it wouldn't be Rape, but it might be Assault, but this is not what he has been accused of.
.

Rape contrary to Section 1 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956 that is what a rapist would be charged with