Julian Assange's dissembling

A quick summary: Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks is persona non grata in the United States. Over a year ago, his organisation received a large quantity of confidential CIA documents which expressed US opinions about various countries around the world. This was intensely embarassing for the US as some of those opinions were quite frank. Also, many claim it undermined the safety of individuals by revealing confidential conversations with the US or else simply by giving away tactical or strategic information to the US' enemies. Wikileaks rejects this, by saying it screens the leaks it releases to evaluate the safety to individuals resulting from publication. Assange is wanted in Sweden (who have issued a EAW) for trial on allegations of sexual assault. He has fought his extradition from Britain to Sweden on various grounds (all of them, it must be said were bogus), but now claims that his human rights are endangered, because Sweden might re-extradite him to the United States where he could face the death penalty. He has taken refuge in the embassy of Ecuador, and the Ecuadorean president has granted him asylum in Ecuador. The embassy is currently surrounded by police.

Now, frankly, I think his case is all a load of rubbish. The idea that Sweden might ignore his human rights and extradite him anywhere under threat of the death penalty is absurd. It is not possible for any European country to extradite anyone without assurance that the death penalty is off-limits. Such agreements have never been broken. Indeed, even if Assange was to fly directly to the United States tomorrow, it is unlikely he could be tried for any custodial offence of which I am aware. He is after all a journalist, he did not leak any information, he merely published it. I find it hard to imagine any situation where the US legal system would be able to severely punish him. Indeed, there is more chance of him being prosecuted in the effected European countries (such as Ireland) than of being imprisoned in the US where freedom of speech has a high legal significance.

The real story here is not the phantom threat of his being extradited to the US, but rather the serious allegations he faces in Sweden. His supporters seem willing to dismiss these accusations as merely a plot to discredit him in his role as head of Wikileaks and/or extradite him to the US. However, I am not. Sweden is a stable democracy with an excellent record of policing and impartial justice. It is very difficult for me to ignore their suspicions of Assange, and even more difficult for me to suppose that they would somehow be complicit in a miscarriage of justice to exact revenge for the humiliation of another country (or even their own). Indeed, as a member of the EU, and the area of Freedom, Security and Justice, it is assumed in the UK that a fair trial is guaranteed in the other members of the area (such as Sweden) and that he will not be extradite anywhere at risk of the death penalty.

His extradition to Sweden is just and correct, his human rights are not realistically endangered, his bid for asylum is bogus and the actions of the Ecuadorean President bizare.