Assange extradition looms as UK court rejects appeal to reopen case

Published time: June 14, 2012 13:51
Edited time: June 15, 2012 07:45
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange (AFP Photo/Miguel Medina)
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The UK Supreme Court has denied WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s appeal to reopen his extradition case. It brings Assange one step closer to extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted over sexual assault and rape allegations.

On Thursday the Court has issued a five-point ruling dismissing an application by Assange’s defense to reopen the case. The reasons behind the decision have been anonymously agreed by seven judges, the document says.

The Court has also announced that the required period for extradition shall not commence until the 14th day after Thursday. Once the two weeks are over, officials will have 10 days to transfer Assange to Sweden.

The ruling leaves almost no hope for the WikiLeaks founder. Legal experts say he can still apply to the European Court of Human Rights to counter the decision of the British Court, but the chances are not good.

There is one thing, however, that Assange’s defense team achieved with their application. The Court has changed the wording regarding Assange’s charges in Sweden from “stands charged” to “offences in respect of which his extradition is sought”.

The correction is of particular importance for Assange, his supporters say, because the false statement was subsequently reported by the international press.

The British Court had previously granted the Australian whistleblower’s legal team a period of 14 days to lodge an application to reopen the case after ruling against him in May. It was filed on Tuesday.

Assange’s lawyer argued that the court had made the judgment based on EU legislation rather than UK law and, as such, Assange’s defense had not been given the opportunity to prepare adequately. Julian Assange has been fighting extradition to Sweden for the best part of two years in an ongoing marathon court battle.

There are fears that his extradition to Sweden could result in him being handed over to US jurisdiction.

Assange maintains the Swedish allegations are false and are founded on political motivations linked to the thousands of classified documents leaked by his WikiLeaks website. He does not deny that sex with two WikiLeaks volunteers in Sweden took place, but insists it was consensual.

Meanwhile, Assange’s defense team has expressed concerns that, if extradited to Sweden and then subsequently to the US, the whistleblower will be tried in the same manner as Private Bradley Manning, who is currently facing a court martial on charges of handing over numerous documents to WikiLeaks.

­Afshin Rattansi, an award-winning journalist, told RT it's a shame that the British Highest Court could not even get it right “as to whether Julian Assange has been charged,” emphasizing that Assange’s counsel won on that point. US attorney Kevin Zeese points out the same fact and explains that to be questioned, Assange’s physical presence in Sweden is not a must.

“All Assange is wanted for is questioning, he’s not been charged. He could have done the questioning by Skype. There’s no need to go to Sweden to be questioned,” he told RT.

Rattansi also asserts that the case is politically motivated, and draws attention to Hillary Clinton's trip to Sweden over the weekend, saying that there's a clear connection and “the United States could not have been more obvious.”


Watch RT's interview with ­Afshin Rattansi

­Watch RT's interview with Kevin Zeese


Comments (55)

shilka.maskirovka 15.06.2012 13:11

If I were free media, I would by now monitor all private jets and transport aircrafts or passenger planes arriving Arlanda Stockholm. The tail numbers will disclose what of those planes that is a CIA front. To jail Assange for these accusations can only mean one thing. Extradition. This has happened before and it will happen again. CIA was allowed into Sweden kidnapping Egyptian refugees 2007. These refugees were transported to Egypt were they were tortured and imprisoned. The dark figure of crimes of this type is of course considerable. I would not be surprised if a CIA front owned plane is already parked at Arlanda. The main motor in this is Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt a known Bilderberger member that this year sent Swedish representatives to Westfield Marriot in Chantilly Virginia, Jonas Bonnier President and CEO, Bonnier AB, Gunilla Carlsson Minister for International Development Cooperation,  Jacob Wallenberg Chairman, Investor AB.  Assange was probably along with the situation in Syria and Iran the main topics of that secretive meeting, the meetings involving the crème de la crème of this worlds financial giants, mega corporations, oil giants, media tycoons, pre-selected and elected world politicians. This international cabal of criminals rule the day, and has done so since 1954, this is the global clandestine “protective parent group” of the world involving member nations and non member nations, that make sure that all global events play out after their design and their agendas. Their method of controlling global events is problem, reaction, solution, and they are the mother of all special interest groups out there, lobbying for their cause, WLeaks opened up for a dangerous rift between US and European Clandestine Organizations, of course they want Assange extradited to the US, of course they arrest Bradley Manning for showing the truth, the rift made by WLeaks and Manning documents has not been easy to repair as confidence is severely damaged.

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Ancient Briton (unregistered) 15.06.2012 09:45

Aldous...1984 is the NORM....it`s how things are always going to be .....regardless of which crooked gangster runs the world.
What infuriates me about the ridiculous Jews and their monarch Lord Rothschild and his  Israeli global Gestapo the CIA.. is that they were within a whisker of freeing us ALL!
If only all their BBCs and Madoffs and Blankfeins and Netanyahus and Murdochs had really BELIEVED in and introduced those wonderful Enlightenment concepts (they cynically misused to enslave us for Baal)  the whole of mankind could have been entering a better Brave New World!

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Ancient Briton (unregistered) 15.06.2012 09:24

Aldous Huxley (unregistered) wrote in #15
Suddenly all hope of a world with any values or dignity or moral standards destroyed in this witchhunt for a man who just did what was right by revealing the real world....its ORWELLS 1984 by rewriting history over and over again to fit an alternative agenda. ..everyone in denial that the world today is a junk-yard full of corruption and allowing push-button wars.....Afghanistan Libya Syria Iraq and finally Iran the last war. And who gets the blame? JULIAN ASSANGE.  Don`t be such a drama queen Aldous.....it`s time we realised that if we deposed "truthful" ikons like the Clintons and Bliars our dear friends (and patrons) Lord Rothschild and the Pope would just find us some more equally crooked Catholic,Jewish or Zionist overlords to carry on totally ignoring the democratic wishes of the public and running all the same rackets they did before.What are you worrying about ? These financial wizards have sensibly disorganised a much needed (population reducing) world war... and handed power back to the sensibly "Communist" Chinese....so very soon now the architects of this ridiculous Zionist George Soros "open society" New World will be swept from the face of the Earth by the work of their own hands!  It`s poetic justice.

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