Julian Assange: going to Sweden?
After an almost year-long extradition battle, it looks like Julian Assange will end up being sent to Sweden after all. The WikiLeaks founder has been fighting allegations of sexual assault by two Swedish women, which he hasn’t been officially charged for, and which have taken much of his time, money, and energy away from his secret-spilling website.
London’s High Court rejected Assange’s appeal today (or in the middle of last night, eastern U.S. time), ruling that the European Arrest Warrant was valid and that his alleged actions would constitute serious enough crimes to merit extradition. If that wasn’t enough, they also ordered him to pay the prosecutors’ court costs. Assange remained calm, however, and appeared to take the ruling in stride. He briefly told the crowds in front of the courthouse:
“I have not been charged with any crime, in any country. Despite this, the European Arrest Warrant is so restrictive that it prevents U.K. courts from considering the facts of a case, as judges have made clear here today. We will be considering our next steps in the days ahead…No doubt there will be many attempts made to try to spin these proceedings as they occured today but they were merely technical. So please go to swedenversusassange.com if you wish to know what is really going on in this case.”
He could still try to take his case to the Supreme Court, although they would only agree to hear the case if they decided it involved matters of public significance. According to the New York Times, this is exactly what he is planning to do. If this last bid to avoid extradition fails, Assange would be sent to Sweden within 10 days.
Today’s ruling is sad news, both for Julian himself and for WikiLeaks. If he does indeed go to Sweden, he will have to await his trial in jail, since there is no bail there, and the trial will be closed to the public. It would be pretty difficult, to say the least, to run the site from jail, and it’s hard to picture WikiLeaks without Assange. The site has also come close to shutting down because of the financial blockade by Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, and Bank of America. But it will be interesting to see what the rest of the WikiLeaks team does without their leader.
According to the Hindu, the site is working on ”new projects, innovative technology, and creative ideas,” including a system for submitting leaks that is “more advanced and more secure than anything seen before.” Vaughan Smith, the founder of the Frontline Club who is hosting Assange at his country estate, had some hopeful thoughts as well: “I think it would be foolish to determine WikiLeaks is over. It’s far too premature for that. If it’s got the will to survive, and if there are whistleblowers out there who can do this sort of thing, and if they believe WikiLeaks is the right place, then WikiLeaks is going to be here in the future…I think he will survive and continue. I don’t think we’ve seen the end of Assange.”
Read the full ruling (PDF) and summary (PDF)