Given Ecuador, according to Human rights Watch, has laws which restrict freedom of expression and these laws are used by President Correa to stifle the media there is rich irony here...

Certainly it's a country with a far more corrupt judiciary than, say, Sweden.

Assange is not a fugitive

He is now, he's broken his bail conditions. Which is going to annoy the empty-headed lefties who stumped up the money.

But ego clashes and media personality conflicts are pitifully trivial when weighed against what is at stake in this case

Agreed. Do we think alleged rapists should be prosecuted or not?

Julian Assange is a hero! And seeking political asylum is brilliant - it shows up the establishment and the corrupt f*ckers that have consumed it!

Did you object when Chinese dissident Chen sought asylum in the US Embassy on the same grounds? The US has an atrocious record on human rights.

A hero was has declined to help the American serviceman he duped into betraying secrets to him...

And, let's not forget, an alleged rapist.

Assange is not a fugitive and has not fled.

Most of this article is a matter of opinion. This is a statement of fact, and completely wrong. He has fled. He is in breach of his bail conditions, and as such he is a fugitive.

For several reasons, Assange has long feared that the US would be able to coerce Sweden into handing him over far more easily than if he were in Britain.

For what reasons? Britain has the most cosy extradition relationship with the US in the world. If we can deport an autistic teenager and the president of the Kent Golf Union, we would certainly deport Assange if asked.

He has not even been charged, let alone tried or convicted, of sexual assault, and he is entitled to a presumption of innocence. The accusations made against him are serious ones, and deserve to be taken seriously and accorded a fair and legal resolution.

He is accused of rape - not just sexual assault. Let's not mince words here. He is accused of penetrating someone as she slept - rape in most jurisdictions including England & Wales. As in most rape accusations there are two sides of the story. He is not giving his side of the story. A fair and legal resolution demands that the questions of him are answered under the due process of Swedish law.

If he's guilty of any crimes in Sweden, he should be held to account.

How can he if he won't go there to be held to account?

Chen was, unlike Assange, in fear of his life and, unlike Assange, had not been accused of doing anything more than annoying the hell out of an undemocratic regime.

For all its faults, the US record on human rights is better than that of China.

And Swedens' is far better than Ecuadors'. If Assange was truly a hero he'd be pointing that out.

Assange has donated money and given political support to Bradley Manning, far more than the Guardian for example.

I find it odd that the author, a lawyer, apparently has no issue whatsoever with people breaching their bail conditions...

Oh great ... another chapter in 'The Adventures of Mr Lozenge' ... when can we expect the movie? Such a pity that Kenneth Williams is no longer around. He would be perfect for the lead role with such ineffable lines as "Infamy, infamy, they've all got it in for me ..."

At every step of the process, he has adhered to, rather than violated, the rule of law. His asylum request of yesterday is no exception.

Nonsense - he has jumped bail!

Simplistic cap duffing compliance with the establishment, be it judges, police or career politicians who hang on strings, is not to be advocated now that the judiciary has decided to accept French law in extradition cases.
I wish Julian well, that he had to choose Ecuador in this emergency situation, a short circuit reaction that has got nothing to do with comparing Sweden with Ecudaor, is a sad indightment of the situation. Too many western countries have been bowled over by US imperialism and the facts seem not to matter anymore.

Alledged rapists that have not been charged with anything should not be extradited on such hear say.

This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn't abide by our community standards. Replies may also be deleted. For more detail see our FAQs.

Why did he chose Ecuador? Did he get it confused with Venezuela? I would have thought Chavez would be more his cup of tea

Anybody can be accused of anything, whether their name is bangorstu, martin Pratt or Julian Assange, if they are not charged with such alledged crimes, they should not be extradited on the whims of some bent judges who favour french law before english

This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn't abide by our community standards. Replies may also be deleted. For more detail see our FAQs.

## For all its faults, the US record on human rights is better than that of China ##

Not for foreigners it aint. The US has curtailed the human rights on over 2 m since ww2 ...some say many many more . China a million.

Both are ghastly but the US is worse for foreigners like Assange.

B

This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn't abide by our community standards. Replies may also be deleted. For more detail see our FAQs.

He's conflated a simple matter of answering questions relating to a criminal act with a convoluted conspiracy fantasy.

There is no political aspect to his extradition to Sweden. The UK courts have followed the law based on the evidence given to them.

This is an abuse of the asylum process. And you a lawyer, presumably in favour of human rights, excuses this ?

Let's not mince words here. He is accused of penetrating someone as she slept...

As she was 'half' asleep, whatever that means.

At least this gives us a laugh over the gullible lefties (is there any other kind) who put up his bail money.

If Sweden is so friggin' bad, why did Assange apply for friggin' residence there?

Assange denied Swedish residence permit

It seems that in order to be an Assange acolyte you have to: 1) suspend all disbelief, and; 2) have the intellectual capacity and memory recall of a gnat.

For several reasons, Assange has long feared that the US would be able to coerce Sweden into handing him over far more easily than if he were in Britain. For one, smaller countries such as Sweden are generally more susceptible to American pressure and bullying.
---
Except Glenn, anyone looking at either UK extradition practice, or EU law knows this to be a load of crap.

Lets call a spade a spade. Assange is just as protected, if not more so, from US meddling in Sweden than he is in the UK. In Sweden, he gets a third (as oppose to the current 2) countries that would oppose a US extradition on the basis of the US applying the death penality, EU law also prohibits this, and the UK has an extradition treaty with the US that has been critisized as one sided in favour of the USA.

What we have here, is a man trying to avoid a rape charge, and using his notoriety to muddy the water. His conspiracy theory does not hold up to even the simplest bit of scrutiny. Assange should be ashamed of himself.

Both are ghastly but the US is worse for foreigners like Assange.

On what planet does someone have to live to think this.

"Such a pity that Kenneth Williams is no longer around. He would be perfect for the lead role". Surely you mean John Inman? "I'm free!", free from having to answer to charges of rape in the country he calls a 'feminist Saudi Arabia'...

Sweden is less likely to extradite anyone to the US than the UK.

Assange just does not want to be convicted of rape. Being called a rapist is a great stigmatiser- hence the whole song and dance about extradition to Sweden. If Assange gets to sweden- I guarantee anyone that he won't get extradited.

Assange should man up- and face the rape charge. He shouldn't do a Polanski.
If he gets dragged from Sweden kicking and screaming to the US- then we can cry out- but until someone can list the number of sucessful extradition cases ( apart from the two Egyptians refrenced above- which anyway involved their handover to the Egyptians to be tortured under CIA auspices-not the Department of Justice, USA), I doubt the Swedes would hand over Assange just like that.

Man up, Julian, man up.

Good to see the Guardian give some balance to the issue. Greenwald is a meticulous journalist, logically and ethically sound.

Greenwald, excellent as ever.

Allegations were made against him by two females who have since kept a very low profile. Assange has been charged with nothing and It is therefore outrageous that he should be sent to Sweden. This case is a purely political one.

Olof Palme must be turning in his grave.

Perhaps most disturbingly of all, Swedish law permits extreme levels of secrecy in judicial proceedings and oppressive pre-trial conditions, enabling any Swedish-US transactions concerning Assange to be conducted beyond public scrutiny.

legal systems differ. One of the reasons Assange was in sweden was because it's legal protections for whistle-blowers are far higher than other jurisdictions.

Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, Rafael Correa is the perfect posse for Julian Assange, Ardently critical of United States. Laying blame for all the ill that happens in their countries on the Yankee Imperialist devils. They saturate any real discussion on their own misgovernance.

The US has curtailed the human rights on over 2 m since ww2 ...some say many many more . China a million.

Because far more foreigners go to the USA than China.

wonder why?

And of course it depends if you count Tibet as 'foreign'....

Why exactly should two women who consider themselves to be rape victims parade themselve sin front of the media?

This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn't abide by our community standards. Replies may also be deleted. For more detail see our FAQs.

<blockquotes>Allegations were made against him by two females who have since kept a very low profile.</blockquotes> Huh? As opposed to what? Hit the chat show circuit?

"Assange has donated money and given political support to Bradley Manning, far more than the Guardian for example."

Indeed, visceralpelican. Let's also not forget that there hasn't been much Assange can do -- he can barely keep himself out of the clutches of international tyranny. And let's also not forget that the Guardian's handling of the Bradley Manning case has been to smear him with the old depraved "if poofter, then traitor" meme.

HTMFAIL.

This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn't abide by our community standards. Replies may also be deleted. For more detail see our FAQs.

Just as the author of this piece has stated; most comments on here are seeing Assange as guilty. He exposed the U.S military for what it is...murderous and barbaric. His organisation was opening governments across the world, prior to turning their sight on the U.S. Nobody complained about it, until then. Most mainstream media panders to power in the most servile of way, and do little to challenge authority. As for his alleged crimes he offered to be questioned here in the UK, something not taken up by the Swedish prosecution, who clearly have more faith in their extradition system than anyone else. Ideally, he will be questioned at some point, and we see then what the verdict is, and until then he is innocent until proven guilty.

How dare you

It's complicated. The real thing that Assange seems to fear is not going back to Sweden to face the rape charges - which seem fairly suspect, given what little we know of them - but from there being extradited to the US where there's probably a cell in Guantanamo already waiting with his name on it. Under those circumstances, I can see why Assange seems desperate to avoid this.

I used to believe in American justice, but with all of the things that have happened under the Bush Jr and Obama administrations in the name of "national security", I think we've slipped back into the Red Scare mindset we had back in the 1950's where we justify anything and everything on that basis.

## far more foreigners go to the USA than China. wonder why? ##

Hey you...you poor person ...do you want to live in a rich country or a poor country ? What do you mean silly tosser ? I wonder why you are calling me that? :)

B

The handling of this case, and the media's coverage of it, tells us as much about our ruling elites as anything released in the cables.

"Because far more foreigners go to the USA than China."

More to the point is that the USA, in the form of its military and its client tyrants, goes to more countries than China does.

For all its faults, the US record on human rights is better than that of China.

Well, here's a sample of that record on human rights:

Torture Inc. Americas Brutal Prisons

Savaged by dogs, Electrocuted With Cattle Prods, Burned By Toxic Chemicals, Does such barbaric abuse inside U.S. jails explain the horrors that were committed in Iraq?

By Deborah Davies

They are just some of the victims of wholesale torture taking place inside the U.S. prison system that we uncovered during a four-month investigation for BBC Channel 4 . It’s terrible to watch some of the videos and realise that you’re not only seeing torture in action but, in the most extreme cases, you are witnessing young men dying.

The prison guards stand over their captives with electric cattle prods, stun guns, and dogs. Many of the prisoners have been ordered to strip naked. The guards are yelling abuse at them, ordering them to lie on the ground and crawl. ‘Crawl, motherf*****s, crawl.’

If a prisoner doesn’t drop to the ground fast enough, a guard kicks him or stamps on his back. There’s a high-pitched scream from one man as a dog clamps its teeth onto his lower leg.

Another prisoner has a broken ankle. He can’t crawl fast enough so a guard jabs a stun gun onto his buttocks. The jolt of electricity zaps through his naked flesh and genitals. For hours afterwards his whole body shakes.

Lines of men are now slithering across the floor of the cellblock while the guards stand over them shouting, prodding and kicking.

Second by second, their humiliation is captured on a video camera by one of the guards.

The images of abuse and brutality he records are horrifyingly familiar. These were exactly the kind of pictures from inside Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad that shocked the world this time last year.

And they are similar, too, to the images of brutality against Iraqi prisoners that this week led to the conviction of three British soldiers.

But there is a difference. These prisoners are not caught up in a war zone. They are Americans, and the video comes from inside a prison in Texas

They are just some of the victims of wholesale torture taking place inside the U.S. prison system that we uncovered during a four-month investigation for Channel 4 that will be broadcast next week.

Our findings were not based on rumour or suspicion. They were based on solid evidence, chiefly videotapes that we collected from all over the U.S.

In many American states, prison regulations demand that any ‘use of force operation’, such as searching cells for drugs, must be filmed by a guard.

The theory is that the tapes will show proper procedure was followed and that no excessive force was used. In fact, many of them record the exact opposite.

Each tape provides a shocking insight into the reality of life inside the U.S. prison system – a reality that sits very uncomfortably with President Bush’s commitment to the battle for freedom and democracy against the forces of tyranny and oppression.

In fact, the Texas episode outlined above dates from 1996, when Bush was state Governor.

Frank Carlson was one of the lawyers who fought a compensation battle on behalf of the victims. I asked him about his reaction when the Abu Ghraib scandal broke last year and U.S. politicians rushed to express their astonishment and disgust that such abuses could happen at the hands of American guards.

‘I thought: “What hypocrisy,” Carlson told me. ‘Because they know we do it here every day.’

All the lawyers I spoke to during our investigations shared Carlson’s belief that Abu Ghraib, far from being the work of a few rogue individuals, was simply the export of the worst practices that take place in the domestic prison system all the time. They pointed to the mountain of files stacked on their desks, on the floor, in their office corridors – endless stories of appalling, sadistic treatment inside America’s own prisons.

Hard to know whether that's any better than China. Certainly the US incarcerates more people than any other country in the world. Either Americans are delinquent, or that human rights record ain't all you claim it to be.

Of course in the USA you do get a jury trial, unlike China...

Only if a) you're an american citizen, and b) its politically convenient.

Given Assange is wanted in Sweden, why this fascination with the US record on human rights?

EU law? Sweden helped the US torture (at least) two men. And torture is a crime, at least in Europe.

Perhaps you should read the article next time.

Glenn Greenwald is correct in one thing - Assange has sparked huge personal animosity in media circles - specifically at the Guardian and NY Times. Both papers have behaved disgracefully towards him, and in the case of the NY Times, reached tabloid levels - including one of the great and good at the paper commenting extensively on his personal hygiene. At this paper, they merely decided at some point they were superior, and had done with him, while pointing out how capricious and unstable he was. Notwithstanding the fact that the cables he brought in were worth a book and much publicity and self-congratulation to a couple of the hacks that dealt with him.

Assange is probably some of what his critics allege - I'm not sure he ever claimed not to be flawed and who among us are? - but it was his and Bradley Manning's scoop (one the Guardian arrogantly and unilaterally decided to share with NYT after Assange had fallen out with them).

Ulitmately it is Assange and Manning who will pay any price for revealing this information, which I believe to be in the public interest. In this Leveson world, I find it disturbing that the Guardian at some point decided it had ownership of the story and abandoned its source. It continues to do him down. In a way which makes me think that this newspaper and its hacks think they have an exclusive on ethics and are themselves beyond reproach.

I expect Assange will be extradited on these allegations which I hope the Swedish, with their slightly less-than-transparent pre-trial procedure will expedite. I hope conspiracy theories about onward extradition prove unfounded.

In the meantime, for all his flaws, I wish Assange well. I wish him far better than this newspaper and its exploitative journalists. Shame he never gave his exclusives to someone like Glen Greenwald, who perhaps understands better what is at stake.

Your use of the word "rape" is misleading since what he is actually being charged with is having consensual sex without a condom, where the lack of condom wasn't consensual.

He has not been charged in England, so "violating bail conditions" is a pretty weak charge to lay on him. He is seeking asylum based on international human rights under the UN charter.

And the obvious context which you didn't mention at all is that his extradition to Sweden is a small step in order to get him to the USA where he will stand trial for terrorism, for doing what the Washington Post and NY Times do every day: printing material leaked to him by anonymous sources.

Do you think it's ok when the Post uses anonymous Obama officials as sources to push government propaganda? Would you undermine the right of a reporter to do what he can to avoid being persecuted and silenced? That's what this is about. Dubious sexual assault charges are just a red cape to wave in front of the bull of public opinion, to lead people towards favorable conclusions.

Allegations were made against him by two females who have since kept a very low profile.

Do you feel all women alleging rape should go on chat shows and do interviews with magazines in advance of the trial so that the public can size them up??

For what it is worth I think the European Arrest Warrant is an awful infringement upon liberty, but until it is revoked (something I favour) then Assange has a case to answer in Sweden.