As the cliche goes, No Rest for the wicked!


Malanding


On 12/7/2010 12:02 PM, Haruna Darbo wrote:
> LONDON (Dec. 7) -- Julian Assange has told a London court that he 
> intends to fight extradition to Sweden -- one of many legal, financial 
> and security challenges faced by the embattled WikiLeaks founder.
>
> The 39-year-old Australian was refused bail at the City of Westminster 
> Magistrates' Court, where he appeared soon after giving himself up at 
> a London police station this morning. Assange was asked by the judge 
> whether he understood that he could consent to be extradited to 
> Sweden, where he faces one count of rape, one of unlawful coercion and 
> two counts of sexual molestation. The freedom of information 
> campaigner, who denies all of the charges, responded, "I understand 
> that, and I do not consent," The Associated Press reported.
>
> It's not yet clear why Assange was declined bail, estimated at between 
> $160,000 and $320,000 by British daily The Guardian. However, 
> following WikiLeaks' release of hundreds of U.S. diplomatic cables -- 
> a leak known as Cablegate -- nine days ago, he has slowly been denied 
> access to his major sources of funding.
>
> Visa Europe today suspended transfers to WikiLeaks "pending further 
> investigation into the nature of its business and whether it 
> contravenes Visa operating rules." Swiss authorities on Monday froze 
> Assange's bank account, reported to contain about $41,000, after 
> claiming he had provided false personal information. MasterCard 
> blocked transfers to WikiLeaks Monday, saying the organization was 
> involved in "illegal activity," according to CNet News. And online 
> credit firm PayPal has refused to pass on donations to the 
> whistle-blowing site.
>
> A full hearing on Assange's extradition case is set for next week. If 
> the judge then finds that there is sufficient evidence to justify his 
> deportation, the extradition process can proceed. But, as the case of 
> British UFO hacker Gary McKinnon has shown, when a U.K.-based 
> defendant fights an extradition attempt, the case can drag on for 
> years. (McKinnon is wanted by the U.S. for allegedly accessing 
> Pentagon computers illegally.)
>
> Assange's British lawyer said his client was looking forward to 
> fighting the allegations in court. "It's about time we got to the end 
> of the day and we got some truth, justice and rule of law," Mark 
> Stephens told the BBC. "Julian Assange has been the one in hot pursuit 
> to vindicate himself to clear his good name."
>
> And a WikiLeaks spokesman today said the arrest will not stop the 
> organization from releasing more secret documents. "WikiLeaks is 
> operational. We are continuing on the same track as laid out before," 
> Kristinn Hrafnsson told Reuters. "Any development with regards to 
> Julian Assange will not change the plans we have with regards to the 
> releases today and in the coming days."
>
> Assange's legal woes relate to sex-crime allegations filed against him 
> this summer by two women he met in Sweden, which has a far broader 
> legal definition of rape than most Western nations do. The WikiLeaks 
> founder has admitted having consensual sex with the women, and 
> according to a recent AOL News story 
> <http://news.aol.ca/ca/article/sex-by-surprise-at-heart-of-assange-criminal-probe/19743210>, 
> the charges are connected with disagreements over condom use. Assange 
> believes that "personal issues" motivated the original allegations, 
> The Guardian reports, and that Sweden has subsequently behaved as a 
> "cipher" for the U.S.
>
> American Defense Secretary Robert Gates -- a longtime critic of the 
> WikiLeaks project -- was certainly pleased to be told of Assange's 
> arrest. "I haven't heard that, but it sounds like good news to me," he 
> said during a visit to Afghanistan today, according to NBC News.
>
> Stephens told the BBC this weekend that he was worried the attempt to 
> extradite his client to Sweden could be a precursor to moving him to 
> the U.S. 
> <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/andrew_marr_show/9258262.stm> 
> "It doesn't escape my attention that Sweden was one of those 
> lickspittle states which used its resources and its facilities for 
> rendition flights" by the U.S. to transport terrorism suspects around 
> the world for interrogation, he said.
>
> However, Sweden has rejected claims that it is seeking Assange's 
> extradition on political grounds. "This investigation has proceeded 
> perfectly normally without any political pressure of any kind," 
> Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny told Agence France-Presse this weekend. 
> "It is completely independent 
> <http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jUIQj-jUsDX4I3QrdsITQ7c87BAQ?docId=CNG.8549d9b93537814e90de0a33a00a6b06.3b1>." 
>
>
> Assange and his lawyers have questioned that independence, noting that 
> Sweden's chief prosecutor dropped the charges in September. The case 
> was resurrected, Stephens claimed this weekend, only "after the 
> intervention of a Swedish politician."
>
> Although the sex crime allegations might be Assange's biggest worry at 
> the moment, he could soon face legal challenges from governments 
> troubled by WikiLeaks' recent release of diplomatic papers. U.S. 
> Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters on Monday that he had 
> authorized "a number of things to be done" to combat WikiLeaks' 
> activities. Asked if he might launch a prosecution under the Espionage 
> Act <http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6B53G720101206>, Holder 
> replied, "That is certainly something that might play a role, but 
> there are other statutes, other tools at our disposal."
>
> Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has said her administration is 
> investigating filing charges against Assange. "Information would not 
> be on WikiLeaks if there had not been an illegal act undertaken," she 
> said this morning 
> <http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/12/07/3086962.htm?section=justin>. 
> "The Australian Federal Police is going to provide the government with 
> some advice about potential criminal conduct of the individual 
> involved." However, many lawyers have criticized those comments, 
> saying there is no evidence that Assange has committed a crime in 
> Australia or even the U.S.
>
> Supporters of the WikiLeaks founder have now written an open letter to 
> the prime minister demanding she offer him protection.
>
> "First and foremost, Julian Assange is an Australian citizen who is 
> entitled to the protection of his country and does not deserve to be 
> betrayed by his country," one of the signatories, the prominent 
> Australian barrister Julian Burnside, told Australia's ABC network 
> <http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2010/s3087254.htm>. "Julia Gillard 
> has been making it virtually impossible for Assange to return to 
> Australia, where he is entitled to be. And she has even threatened to 
> cancel his passport. That is an outrageous stance to take."
>
> Should Assange eventually find himself sentenced to a spell in the 
> slammer, or put on a plane to the U.S., he would still have one trump 
> card left to play. His lawyer Stephens noted this weekend that 
> thousands of Assange's supporters had downloaded a digital 
> "thermonuclear device 
> <http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/massive-release-of-raw-wikileaks-files-threatened-by-julian-assanges-lawyer/19747814>" 
> -- an encrypted computer file containing all of the papers WikiLeaks 
> has ever received, listing the names of spies, soldiers and sources.
>
> If the open-government activist is jailed, or if any harm comes to 
> him, the encryption code to that file would be released, unleashing a 
> flood of damaging documents. According to The Guardian 
> <http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2010/dec/07/wikileaks-us-embassy-cables-live-updates>, 
> WikiLeaks currently has no plans to do that.
>
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