Julian Assange prosecutor to request interview at Ecuadorian embassy

[bemildred]

Source: Reuters

The Swedish prosecutor heading a preliminary investigation into an allegation of rape against Julian Assange has said she is preparing a new application to interview him at Ecuador’s embassy in London.

Last week a United Nations panel report said Assange’s stay at the embassy amounted to arbitrary detention.

Sweden’s prosecution authority said: “The prosecutor in charge, chief prosecutor Marianne Ny, is currently working on a new application to interview Julian Assange in Ecuador’s embassy in London.”

Ny said: “In relation to the report which was released last week, I can state that it does not change my earlier assessment in the preliminary investigation.”

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/feb/09/julian-assange-prosecutor-request-interview-ecuadorian-embassy

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Groundhog day again.

[struggle4progress]

1. I'm losing count of how many times Sweden's asked and been told no

[bemildred]

2. Sorry, no idea. nt

[snot]

3. Could you pls provide a little more detail/backup for that?

I know Assange originally offered to be interviewed before leaving Sweden, and again while in the U.K., and for the longest time, Swedish authorities refused, insisting that he must be extradited to Sweden for questioning there.

[struggle4progress]

4. "... Swedish prosecutors offered in March to question Assange in London ... But Quito refused

to allow such a meeting, demanding that Stockholm first sign a bilateral agreement ..."
Sweden to meet Ecuador officials Monday over Assange
Posted 29 Aug 2015 02:59
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/sweden-to-meet-ecuador/2084050.html

".. The request for judicial assistance from the Swedish prosecution was received in Stockholm, via Ministry of Justice, at the Embassy of Ecuador, on June 12, 2015 ... Ecuador is preparing the reply accordingly ..."
http://suecia.embajada.gob.ec/press-release-regarding-judicial-cooperation-between-ecuador-and-sweden/

"... Ecuador said Wednesday it is considering Swedish prosecutors' request to question WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange ... Swedish prosecutors said Monday they had submitted a request to British and Ecuadoran authorities to question Assange in June and July at the embassy ..."
Ecuador weighs Swedish request to question Assange
Posted on 18 June 2015 - 11:44am
Last updated on 18 June 2015 - 12:29pm
http://www.thesundaily.my/news/1463723

"Swedish officials will meet their Ecuadorian counterparts on Monday (Aug 31) to find a way for Swedish prosecutors to question WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange over a rape allegation ..."
Sweden to meet Ecuador officials Monday over Assange
Posted 29 Aug 2015 02:59
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/sweden-to-meet-ecuador/2084050.html

"... Swedish prosecutors will shortly submit a new request to question WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorean embassy in London over rape allegations, the Prosecution Authority has said. On Sunday, the Quito government said Ecuador and Sweden had signed a pact after half a year of negotiations that would allow Assange to be questioned at the embassy, where he has been holed up for more than three years ... "
Swedish prosecutors to make new request to question Julian Assange
Reuters in Stockholm
Thursday 17 December 2015 10.28 EST
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/dec/17/swedish-prosecutors-new-request-question-julian-assange-rape-allegations

"Sweden's prosecution authority said on Thursday (Jan 21) Ecuador had refused its request to let a Swedish prosecutor question WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange over a rape allegation, because Quito wanted an Ecuadoran prosecutor to do the questioning. Ecuador rejected "on formal grounds" the Swedish prosecutor's request to interrogate Assange in the Ecuadoran embassy in London, the Swedish authority said in a statement ..."
Sweden, Ecuador at odds over Assange interrogation
Posted 22 Jan 2016 05:39
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/sweden-ecuador-at-odds/2446784.html

"... Last month, Ecuador’s prosecutor-general rejected a previous request from the Swedish prosecutor to question Assange in London. That office, in a letter to Swedish authorities, said it will interview Assange and asked for a list of questions the Swedish prosecutor wants the Ecuadorian prosecutor to ask the Wikileaks founder ..."
The Continuing Saga of Julian Assange
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/02/sweden-assange/461931/

[snot]

10. This is about Ecuador

wanting Sweden to let the Ecuadorian prosecutor pose Sweden's questions to Assange, not about Assange refusing to answer. It's a power struggle between sovereign states.

Note, it took 4.5 years for Sweden to decide that yeah, maybe Assange could be questioned even if he wasn't on Swedish soil. Clearly, what they want is not Assange's answers, but the power to take him into custody regardless of his answers.

[struggle4progress]

13. When Assange was arrested in the UK on a European Arrest Warrant issued in Sweden,

the UK courts determined that prosecution in Sweden begins with a second interview, so found that he was wanted for prosecution in Sweden on rape and other sexual misconduct allegations and not merely for an interrogation

On this basis, the UK courts decided that he could be properly extradited to Sweden. Since the second interview marks the beginning of the formal Swedish prosecution process, it would be highly irregular to begin that process in an Ecuadorian embassy in London; and for that reason the prosecutors did not consider that as a possibility until ordered to do so by the Swedish courts, as the statutory limitation for pursuing some charges drew near

Since both Assange and the Ecuadorians had long demanded that the second interview should occur in the embassy, the Ecuadorians' excuses for further delaying the interview seem somewhat unconvincing: the latest excuse, of their several excuses, is that it would be improper for anyone except an Ecuadorian to conduct the interview; but this, of course, renders the process even more irregular, insofar as it would then be an Ecuadorian initiating the Swedish prosecution process in Ecuador's London embassy, rather than a Swedish prosecutor initiating a Swedish prosecution in Sweden

The natural conclusion is that Ecuador simply intends to obstruct the process as much as possible: their motive, of course, is the view that Ecuador, by slowing Assange's extradition from the UK to Sweden for sexual misconduct prosecution, is somehow poking a stick in the eye of the imperialist Uncle Sam

[hack89]

5. He actually fled Sweden after the prosecutor scheduled an interview through his lawyer

his lawyer testified to this fact under oath in a British court.

[snot]

11. He left Sweden the day his lawyer was notified

that Swedish investigators had decided they wanted to question him again, after previously having questioned him and deciding to drop the investigation.

There's no evidence his lawyer had communicated the prosecutor's new request before Assange departed.

[hack89]

12. No - he left Sweden six days after his lawyer was notified

this according to his lawyer.

[Hissyspit]

6. Dishonest in selective outrage.

Failing to mention the VERY LONG refusal by Sweden to question in London is a lie by omission.

"On Friday, Swedish prosecutors reversed their long refusal to question Assange"

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-sweden-julian-assange-embassy-20150313-story.html

'This is something we've demanded for over four years,' says lawyer; 'Ridiculous' it took so long, says Wikileaks spokesperson.

[bemildred]

7. Think of it as a giant battle of wills among medieval political titans.

No? Didn't work for me either.

Another ludicrous political circus brought to us by our national security apparatus. Assange, Manning, Snowden, they just keep getting better.

[struggle4progress]

8. As was recognized by the Belmarsh magistrate in the primary extradition hearings,

the Swedish prosecution process differs from that of the English common law. The Swedish process ordinarily begins with the second interview of the suspect; and the Belmarsh magistrate indicated that Sweden had clearly conveyed that Assange was not wanted in Sweden for mere interrogation but for prosecution. The Belmarsh hearings also established that Assange's Swedish lawyer had been unequivocably informed of this fact before Assange actually fled Sweden for the UK

The change in the Swedish prosecutors' stance regarding the interview was the result of a Swedish court order directing the prosecution to attempt to arrange the interview abroad, as the statutory deadlines for some prosecutions approached

At this point, we have: (1) Assange fleeing Sweden to avoid prosecution; (2) dishonest misrepresentations from his Swedish lawyers that he would return in several weeks for the second interview; (3) a protracted extradition suit in the UK courts, during which Assange agreed to released on bail subject to conditions with sureties; (4) repeated suits by Assange in the Swedish courts; (5) repeated losses by Assange at every level in the Swedish and UK courts; (6) a sudden abrogation of the bail condition to which he had agreed; and (7) a failure by Assange to pursue the next level of appeal in the EU courts

Assange had indeed been demanding that the Swedish authorities should conduct the second interview in the Ecuadorian embassy; and, as directed by the Swedish court, the Swedish prosecution has now been attempting for a year to arrange that, but since that interview would mark the beginning of the Swedish prosecution process, it is perhaps unsurprising that Assange's Ecuadorian allies are not actually interested in cooperating: the latest development, within the last few weeks, is that Ecuador has informed Sweden that the Swedes themselves may not conduct the interview but that the interview must be conducted by an Ecuadorian

The object here seems clear enough

[cemaphonic]

9. Nice summary

I can see why the pro-Assange conspiracy theory is superficially appealing and plausible, but all you have to do is look at his dealings with the extradition process to see that he is very two-faced about his legal problems.

Hell, even Wikileaks supporters should be mad at him by now. If he had turned it over to some of his associates instead of totally conflating it with himself, it would probably be doing a lot more these days.