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Turborama Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-07-10 09:33 AM
Original message
WikiLeaks' Assange fights extradition to Sweden
Edited on Tue Dec-07-10 09:34 AM by Turborama
Source: AP Via Washington Post

By RAPHAEL G. SATTER

Tuesday, December 7, 2010; 9:24 AM

LONDON -- WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange has told a London court he will fight extradition to Sweden.

The 39-year-old Australian was appearing before City of Westminster Magistrates' Court on Tuesday. He was asked whether he understood that he could consent to be extradited to Sweden, where he faces allegations of sex crimes.

Assange said that he understood - and that he did not consent.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/07/AR2010120701209.html
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Catherina Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-07-10 09:40 AM
Response to Original message
1. Sweden: Expulsions carried out by US agents, men tortured in Egypt
Assange ain't no dummy. He knows how vile Sweden's rightwing government and Secret Police (SAPO) are.

Sweden: Expulsions carried out by US agents, men tortured in Egypt


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Revelations by Swedish TV4 in a documentary, "The broken promise", on 17 May 2004 showed that the expulsion of two men - ordered by the Cabinet - to Egypt on 18 December 2001 was carried out by hooded US agents. The plane booked by the Swedish Security Police (SÄPO) was cancelled when another plane - N379P - a "Gulfstream" executive jet supplied by a firm on the east coast of the USA which works exclusively for the the US Defence Department (two months earlier the same plane removed a Jeminite student, Jamil Gasim, in chains from Karachi in Pakistan to Amman in Jordan).

...

The two men, Muhammed Al Zery and Ahmed Agiza, were alleged to have had connected to terrorist groups - both had been involved in islamic movements in Egypt. Ahmed Agiza fled from Egypt to Pakistan then Iran and finally Sweden in September 2000 with his wife and children (there are now five children). Muhammed Al Zery, an acquaintance of Agiza, fled from Egypt in 1991 and arrived in Sweden in August 1999.

The Swedish Migration Board decided that both needed protection and granted them asylum.

However, the Swedish Security Police (SÄPO), in the post 11 September 2001 climate, decided to respond to a US request for their removal to Egypt where they could be questioned at will and by agencies whose reputation for using ill-treatment and torture was well-established. At 11.45 am on 18 December 2001 the Swedish cabinet agreed - on the basis of SÄPO's recommendation and "information from Egypt" - that the men should be expelled.. At 16.48 Ahmed Agiza was apprehended in Karlstad, on the way home from a course in Swedish and a few minutes later Muhammed Al Zery in a shop in Stockholm.

They were driven to Bromma airport in Stockholm where the special jet, N379P, has landed. They are taken to a room where a group of men in plain clothes from the plane are waiting - "they have their faces hooded". Then:

"The two prisoners have their clothes cut from their bodies by scissors, without their hand- and footcuffs being loosened. The naked and chained prisoners have a suppository of unknown kind inserted into their anus, and diapers are put on them. They are forcibly dressed in dark overalls. Their hands and feet are chained to a specially designed harness. On the plane, both men are blindfolded and hooded.

... the plane takes off at 21.49 and sets course towards Egypt"


The men's lawyers are officially informed by letter which arrived two days later.

How did the Swedish government, which is signed up to all the European and international treaties concerning peoples' rights, agree to send the two men back to Egypt where according to the government there are: "Reports of police brutality, maltreatment and torture in police jails and prisons are common, and seem to be well founded in many cases." Gun-Britt Andersson, then state secretary at the Foreign office, says they obtained a unique guarantee from Egypt that the men would be treated humanely and according to international law. The Swedish government was also promised access to them.

All kinds of allegations were made by Swedish and Egyptian agencies against the men, most of which was completely untrue.

...

Documentation

1. Full-transcript of "The broken promise", TV4, Monday 17 May 2004: Transcript (pdf)
2. Ambassador's report: Report (in Swedish, 1.32 MB)

...

http://www.statewatch.org/news/2004/may/12sweden.htm
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glinda Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-07-10 11:13 AM
Response to Reply #1
4. The corruption of so many higher ups in Countries is sickening.
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midnight Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-07-10 09:43 AM
Response to Original message
2. Thanks for the update.
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Turborama Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-07-10 10:54 AM
Response to Reply #2
3. You're welcome, midnight. The article in the OP has been updated further...
LONDON -- WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told a London court on Tuesday he intends to fight his extradition to Sweden on sex crime allegations, setting up what could be a drawn-out legal battle.

The 39-year-old Australian appeared before City of Westminster Magistrates' Court after turning himself in to Scotland Yard earlier Tuesday to face a Swedish arrest warrant. He was asked whether he understood that he could consent to be extradited to Sweden, where he faces allegations of rape, molestation and unlawful coercion. Clearing his throat, Assange said: "I understand that and I do not consent."

Assange denies the allegations, which stem from a visit to Sweden in August. Assange and his lawyers claim the accusations stem from a "dispute over consensual but unprotected sex," and have said the case has taken on political overtones.

Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny has rejected those claims. Lawyers for Assange and the British government were still arguing on Tuesday over whether Assange should be granted bail.

From: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/07/AR2010120701209.html
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Turborama Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-07-10 11:24 AM
Response to Original message
5. Washington Post keep changing the article in the OP. Here's the latest version...
Judge denies WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange bail

By CASSANDRA VINOGRAD and RAPHAEL G. SATTER
The Associated Press
Tuesday, December 7, 2010; 11:06 AM

LONDON -- A British judge denied Julian Assange bail on Tuesday after the WikiLeaks founder told a London court he would fight efforts to extradite him to Sweden to face a sex-crimes investigation.

The secret-spilling websites' finances came under increasing pressure as both Visa and Mastercard cut off funding methods, but a WikiLeaks spokesman insisted details from classified U.S. diplomatic cables would keep flowing - regardless of what happened to the group's founder.

"This will not change our operation," Kristinn Hrafnsson told The Associated Press. As if to underline the point, WikiLeaks released a cache of a dozen new diplomatic cables, its first publication in more than 24 hours.

Assange appeared Tuesday afternoon at the City of Westminster Magistrates' Court in London after turning himself in to Scotland Yard earlier in the day. He showed no reaction as Judge Howard Riddle denied him bail and sent him into U.K. custody.

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/07/AR2010120701209.html
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kgnu_fan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-07-10 10:06 PM
Response to Original message
6. I hope England is more lawful than this lawless savage country
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