Wikileaks: Julian Assange to be questioned by British police
44 replies, posted
[url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/06/wikileaks-julian-assange-police]Source[/url]
[quote=Guardian]
[img]http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2010/12/1/1291239949637/Julian-Assange-WikiLeaks--006.jpg[/img]
[b]Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, is expected to appear in a UK court tomorrow[/b] after his lawyers said he would meet police to discuss a European extradition warrant from Sweden relating to alleged sexual assaults.
As the legal net continued to close around the whistleblowers' website and US attorney general, Eric Holder, said he had authorised "a number of things to be done" to combat the group, Assange appeared to be reconciling himself to a lengthy personal court battle to avoid extradition.
Jennifer Robinson, a solicitor with Finers Stephens Innocent which represents the Australian freedom of information campaigner, told the Guardian: "We have a received an arrest warrant [related to claims in Sweden]. We are negotiating a meeting with police."
Another lawyer representing Assange, Mark Stephens, added: "He has not been charged with anything. We are in the process of making arrangements to meet the police by consent in order to facilitate the taking of that question and answer that is needed."
Stephens explained that the interview would happen in the "foreseeable future" but he could not give a precise time. According to other sources, it is thought that Assange would appear before a court to negotiate bail .
Assange is seeking supporters to put up surety and bail for him. He said he expected to have to post [b]bail of between £100,000 and £200,000 and would require up to six people offering surety, or risked being held on remand.[/b]
In recent days Assange has told friends that he is increasingly convinced the US is behind Swedish prosecutors' attempts to extradite him for questioning on the assault allegations. He has said the original allegations against him were motivated by "personal issues" but that Sweden had subsequently behaved as "a cipher" for the US. He has also said he declined to return to Sweden to face prosecutors because he feared he would not receive a fair trial and prosecutors had requested that he be held in solitary confinement and incommunicado.
This weekend he said he was exhausted by the effort of running his defence against the allegations in Sweden rape charges and the release of the US embassy cables at the same time, as well as running WikiLeaks, which has split since some supporters became disaffected over Assange's handling of the Afghanistan war logs.
Once he turns himself into the police he will have to appear before a magistrates court within 24 hours, where he will seek release on bail. A full hearing of his extradition case would have to be heard within 28 days.
In the past Assange has dismissed the allegations, stating on Twitter: "The charges are without basis and their issue at this moment is deeply disturbing."
Last week Stephens added: "This appears to be a persecution and a prosecution. It is highly irregular and unusual for the Swedish authorities to issue [an Interpol] red notice in the teeth of the undisputed fact that Mr Assange has agreed to meet voluntarily to answer the prosecutor's questions."
While the latest US diplomatic cables released on WikiLeaks have been stirring international political alarm and recriminations, Assange is understood to have been staying out of public sight in south-east England.
Prosecutors in Sweden issued a warrant for his arrest last month but it could not be enforced because of a technical blunder. The Australian's details were also added to Interpol's most wanted website after a red notice was issued, alerting police worldwide to his status.
Detectives in Sweden want to question Assange after two women claimed they were sexually assaulted by him when he visited the country in August. The country's supreme court upheld an order to detain Assange for questioning after he appealed against two lower court rulings. The sex assault claims may be Assange's most pressing legal issue, but it may not be the only legal complications he faces as several countries consider the impact of his diplomatic cable disclosures.
He has come under growing pressure after WikiLeaks started publishing excerpts from a cache of 250,000 secret messages. In the US, the level of political vituperation has become more vengeful. The former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has described Assange as "an anti-American operative with blood on his hands". The senior Republican Mike Huckabee said that "anything less than execution is too kind a penalty".
Meanwhile WikiLeaks has been forced to move to a Swiss host after being dumped by US internet companies as it comes under siege from cyber attacks.
PostFinance, the financial arm of the Swiss post office, said it had closed Assange's account after he provided "false information". "PostFinance has ended its business relationship with WikiLeaks founder Julian Paul Assange," the bank said in a statement. "The Australian citizen provided false information regarding his place of residence during the account opening process."[/quote]
My first news post, sorry if I missed anything.
Assange to be assassinated in court tomorrow, I called it.
I love how this sex assault case just suddenly became important when he started leaking US secrets.
[QUOTE=kapin_krunch;26532780]I love how this sex assault case just suddenly became important when he started leaking US secrets.[/QUOTE]
Wasn't it just unprotected sex?
[QUOTE=Coffee;26532868]Wasn't it just unprotected sex?[/QUOTE]
No, like the US secrets, his condom started leaking.
[QUOTE=Coffee;26532868]Wasn't it just unprotected sex?[/QUOTE]
I am trying to find the article but the women said it's more than that. The women reported that the sex was consensual and with a condom, but the condom broke, and women said stop, but Assange continued.
Edit:
Found it. [quote]According to accounts the women gave to the police and friends, they each had consensual sexual encounters with Mr. Assange that became nonconsensual. One woman said that Mr. Assange had ignored her appeals to stop after a condom broke. The other woman said that she and Mr. Assange had begun a sexual encounter using a condom, but that Mr. Assange did not comply with her appeals to stop when it was no longer in use. Mr. Assange has denied any wrongdoing and has questioned the veracity of those accounts. [/quote]
[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/world/europe/07assange.html?_r=1&hp[/url]
Wasn't even a crime many Governments are just trying to find something to get him for.
[QUOTE=5killer;26533149]I am trying to find the article but the women said it's more than that. The women reported that the sex was consensual and with a condom, but the condom broke, and women said stop, but Assange continued.[/QUOTE]
:golfclap:
Real women don't blue ball men, it's like getting kicked in the nuts, but the effect comes on slowly and painfully.
And the only real way to fix it is to finish the job.
CIA have to be in on this surely...
[QUOTE=5killer;26533149]I am trying to find the article but the women said it's more than that. The women reported that the sex was consensual and with a condom, but the condom broke, and women said stop, but Assange continued.[/QUOTE]
She didn't say Hammertime.
Originally with Wikileaks and Assange, I didn't mind it. The war diaries that were released were very interesting and were really of no significance as far as security is concerned. But the the situation has changed. These new diplomatic cables are another matter entirely. All the secrets that have gotten out from them have done nothing great for anyone. They've succeeded instead in painting a target on the United States' back and making plenty of nations that are already tense with one another even more tense (I speak in particular about the Middle Eastern region).
In other news, an hour after appearing for questioning, Mr. Assange disappeared. Authorities are not looking for him, and encourage everyone to to pretend he never existed.
Seriously though, this whole situation is just getting out of control.
:foxnews:Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, found dead at the London Police Department yesterday. MORE AT 11:foxnews:
They probably sent Gene Hunt to deal with him.
[QUOTE=Best4bond;26534348]They probably sent Gene Hunt to deal with him.[/QUOTE]
They've mastered time travel?
It doesn't matter if they prosecute Julian Assange. This'll only serve to give him martyrdom in the eyes of his supporters.
[QUOTE=Melkor;26534885]It doesn't matter if they prosecute Julian Assange. This'll only serve to give him martyrdom in the eyes of his supporters.[/QUOTE]
It is pretty funny when you think about it. By targeting him for anything he is put in the public spotlight, by killing him he becomes a martyr, by arresting him he becomes a martyr, by leaving him alone he becomes something Governments can't touch and an icon to people.
No matter what course of action any Governments plan to take there will always be a negative backlash against them.
[QUOTE=superdinoman;26534978]It is pretty funny when you think about it. By targeting him for anything he is put in the public spotlight, by killing him he becomes a martyr, by arresting him he becomes a martyr, by leaving him alone he becomes something Governments can't touch and an icon to people.
No matter what course of action any Governments plan to take there will always be a negative backlash against them.[/QUOTE]
They would have to do a better job of destroying his reputation first. If they ever wanted to truly be rid of him.
If he is executed, good riddance.
[QUOTE=Melkor;26535001]They would have to do a better job of destroying his reputation first. If they ever wanted to truly be rid of him.[/QUOTE]
They are attempting to do so right now with this whole sex scandal. You can see how well that is going. :mmmhmm:
[QUOTE=redBadger;26535047]If he is executed, good riddance.[/QUOTE]
Within an hour of that happening some new guy will be put forward as the "true" leader of wikileaks.
It's a pity Paypal shut down Wikileaks' account; he could have had bail money in no time at all.
If he's executed for this it would be like the French Revolution but on a global scale.
If what his lawyer has been saying over the past week is true, he has been wanting to talk with the Swedish police since August and they have been ignoring him. I suspect if this is true he will talk to the British police in the same way he has apparently been trying to talk to the Swedish police, to clear his name I assume.
[QUOTE=redBadger;26535047]If he is executed, good riddance.[/QUOTE]
I'm starting to agree. And it's unfortunate. Wikileaks had such potential; evidently, though, they're out just to hurt the United States' reputation on the international scene in as many ways as they can using as much information as they can get.
[QUOTE=LunchboxOfDoom;26535077]I'm starting to agree. And it's unfortunate. Wikileaks had such potential; evidently, though, they're out just to hurt the United States' reputation on the international scene in as many ways as they can using as much information as they can get.[/QUOTE]
The latest facilities list isn't going to kill anyone.
[QUOTE=redBadger;26535047]If he is executed, good riddance.[/QUOTE]
Yes lets execute the person who is doing nothing more than publishing information they are given. If anyone should be executed (and I do not think anyone should, this isn't murder) it should be the person/people who have leaked the info.
Assange/Wikileaks have done nothing more than many media outlets have done over the years.
[QUOTE=Jsm;26535118]Yes lets execute the person who is doing nothing more than publishing information they are given. If anyone should be executed (and I do not think anyone should, this isn't murder) it should be the person/people who have leaked the info.
Assange/Wikileaks have done nothing more than many media outlets have done over the years.[/QUOTE]
Nobody should be executed.
[QUOTE=superdinoman;26535052]They are attempting to do so right now with this whole sex scandal. You can see how well that is going. :mmmhmm:
Within an hour of that happening some new guy will be put forward as the "true" leader of wikileaks.[/QUOTE]
I'm sure someone will step up, but he won't last or be nearly as successful as Assange. You know Wikileaks has reached it's ending when so much news like this is coming around. Most countries are trying to stop him now, so Wikileaks is probably at its last breath.
[QUOTE=redBadger;26535130]I'm sure someone will step up, but he won't last or be nearly as successful as Assange. You know Wikileaks has reached it's ending when so much news like this is coming around. Most countries are trying to stop him now, so Wikileaks is probably at its last breath.[/QUOTE]
A few hundred website backups, compressed protected documents released to the public with only a password needed from Wikileaks, everytime one page goes down people open up 5 more.
Not even close to ending.
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