SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Julian Assange Asks Swedish Supreme Court to Lift Arrest Warrant
Lawyers to argue that threat of extradition imposes 'severe limitations' on WikiLeaks founder
Feb 25, 2015
WikiLeaks founder and journalist Julian Assange on Wednesday asked the Swedish Supreme Court to lift the arrest warrant against him which has trapped him in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for nearly three years.
His lawyers will argue that the warrant has imposed "severe limitations" on Assange, who claimed asylum in 2012 to escape extradition to the U.S. for publishing a cache of classified military and State Department documents.
The warrant stems from allegations of sexual assault against Assange which came in 2010 in Sweden. He has not been charged with any crimes in that case and has denied the accusations. The prosecutor in the case, Marianne Ny, has said she cannot charge Assange until interviewing him, but has declined his offers to do so at the embassy in London.
Stockholm's appeal court rejected a similar request in November on the grounds that lifting the warrant would risk allowing Assange to flee legal proceedings, and that his confinement to the embassy was self-imposed. However, according to the Guardian, legal opinion in Sweden has since "swung against the prosecutor's decision not to travel to London to interview Assange."
The Guardian reports:
If they lose the case in Sweden, Assange's lawyers are looking to appeal to the European court, where they say legal thinking on detention "speaks strongly" in their favour. Sweden's interpretation that Assange is not deprived of his liberty appears to be at odds with ECHR jurisprudence, said Jennifer Robinson, an Australian lawyer for Assange.
Assange has said that his confinement in the embassy, which has been imposed absent of any criminal charges, is a violation of Article 5 of the European convention on human rights, which guarantees fundamental liberty and security of person. In June of last year, 59 global human rights organizations condemned Sweden's "pre-charge detention" of Assange, which they called "a clear violation of his fundamental human rights, yet they remain beyond the reach of judicial review."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Nadia Prupis
Nadia Prupis is a former Common Dreams staff writer. She wrote on media policy for Truthout.org and has been published in New America Media and AlterNet. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in English in 2008.
WikiLeaks founder and journalist Julian Assange on Wednesday asked the Swedish Supreme Court to lift the arrest warrant against him which has trapped him in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for nearly three years.
His lawyers will argue that the warrant has imposed "severe limitations" on Assange, who claimed asylum in 2012 to escape extradition to the U.S. for publishing a cache of classified military and State Department documents.
The warrant stems from allegations of sexual assault against Assange which came in 2010 in Sweden. He has not been charged with any crimes in that case and has denied the accusations. The prosecutor in the case, Marianne Ny, has said she cannot charge Assange until interviewing him, but has declined his offers to do so at the embassy in London.
Stockholm's appeal court rejected a similar request in November on the grounds that lifting the warrant would risk allowing Assange to flee legal proceedings, and that his confinement to the embassy was self-imposed. However, according to the Guardian, legal opinion in Sweden has since "swung against the prosecutor's decision not to travel to London to interview Assange."
The Guardian reports:
If they lose the case in Sweden, Assange's lawyers are looking to appeal to the European court, where they say legal thinking on detention "speaks strongly" in their favour. Sweden's interpretation that Assange is not deprived of his liberty appears to be at odds with ECHR jurisprudence, said Jennifer Robinson, an Australian lawyer for Assange.
Assange has said that his confinement in the embassy, which has been imposed absent of any criminal charges, is a violation of Article 5 of the European convention on human rights, which guarantees fundamental liberty and security of person. In June of last year, 59 global human rights organizations condemned Sweden's "pre-charge detention" of Assange, which they called "a clear violation of his fundamental human rights, yet they remain beyond the reach of judicial review."
Nadia Prupis
Nadia Prupis is a former Common Dreams staff writer. She wrote on media policy for Truthout.org and has been published in New America Media and AlterNet. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in English in 2008.
WikiLeaks founder and journalist Julian Assange on Wednesday asked the Swedish Supreme Court to lift the arrest warrant against him which has trapped him in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for nearly three years.
His lawyers will argue that the warrant has imposed "severe limitations" on Assange, who claimed asylum in 2012 to escape extradition to the U.S. for publishing a cache of classified military and State Department documents.
The warrant stems from allegations of sexual assault against Assange which came in 2010 in Sweden. He has not been charged with any crimes in that case and has denied the accusations. The prosecutor in the case, Marianne Ny, has said she cannot charge Assange until interviewing him, but has declined his offers to do so at the embassy in London.
Stockholm's appeal court rejected a similar request in November on the grounds that lifting the warrant would risk allowing Assange to flee legal proceedings, and that his confinement to the embassy was self-imposed. However, according to the Guardian, legal opinion in Sweden has since "swung against the prosecutor's decision not to travel to London to interview Assange."
The Guardian reports:
If they lose the case in Sweden, Assange's lawyers are looking to appeal to the European court, where they say legal thinking on detention "speaks strongly" in their favour. Sweden's interpretation that Assange is not deprived of his liberty appears to be at odds with ECHR jurisprudence, said Jennifer Robinson, an Australian lawyer for Assange.
Assange has said that his confinement in the embassy, which has been imposed absent of any criminal charges, is a violation of Article 5 of the European convention on human rights, which guarantees fundamental liberty and security of person. In June of last year, 59 global human rights organizations condemned Sweden's "pre-charge detention" of Assange, which they called "a clear violation of his fundamental human rights, yet they remain beyond the reach of judicial review."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.