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11A041
Assange in Court
by Jim Davies, 2/10/2011
That case for the defense is powerful. The warrant for his extradition was made by Marianne Ny in Gothenburg, itself an odd thing because that city is far distant from Stockholm and Enköping, where the alleged crimes were committed. One suggestion is that Ny is a virulent FemiNazi who could not wait to author the warrant and particularly asked her government for the honor. At any rate, a precedent case says the only "authority" in Sweden qualified to issue such a warrant is the "National Police Board", of which Marianne Ny is not even a member. So, Defense alleges, the warrant is, on its face, completely void. It continues by arguing that the extradition warrant was issued for an improper purpose - to question Assange further, not to prosecute him - that the alleged offenses are not extraditable anyway (not being crimes in England, according to evidence presented), and that his human rights would be violated under Section 21 of the 2003 Extradition Act; "extradition to Sweden would breach his human rights because Sweden has, in the past, extradited suspects to Egypt, which has been accused of torture." Powerful stuff. The case details Assange's encounters with the two young groupies who, upon discovering he had slept with the other, each expressed her anger by complaining of rape, pretty well as Hell's Fury related here on December 9th. Judgement will be rendered primarily on the basis of what the political masters want to happen, but if the defense case is logically overwhelming it's just possible that he will win. It's also possible that those political masters would rather this matter be buried from public view rather than paraded every few weeks in the headlines; it must bring them anguish to have a leaker on the loose, but maybe there is more anguish in having the public reminded that often how sick the leaks have made them look. Another possibility is that with Assange's nuclear option pending, they'd really prefer to hush it all up. It's a thin thread on which to hang a good man's future, but I'll not discount it. Just imagine, how silly all this will appear when our zero government society has begun! There will be no war being waged whose ugly secrets can be leaked, nor any ambassadors whose too-frank appraisals can be made public. Wikileaks' work will be done, for there will be nothing left to leak.
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It's a few weeks since this ZGBlog commented on Julian
Assange's troubles, but now he's back in court in London, and his
lawyers have been busy. I hesitate to use the term "good
lawyer" because it's so nearly an oxymoron, but his has
produced a crackerjack defense and 
