Julian Assange's lawyer admits Ecuadorian asylum bid 'makes him look like a suspect'

[struggle4progress]

Jerome Taylor
Friday 22 June 2012

... Speaking to The Independent as Mr Assange prepared to spend a fourth night inside the cramped embassy, Thomas Olsson said he understood why some felt his client’s actions might make it look like he was “running away from his responsibilities”.

“It makes him look like a suspect in the public’s eye and it allows his enemies to portray him as someone who is trying to avoid these charges <in Sweden>,” he said. “But the threat of extradition to the United States is substantial” ...

Sweden, however, has pursued an extradition request over allegations that Mr Assange sexually assaulted two women in the summer of 2010. The WikiLeaks founder denies the charges but refuses to travel to Sweden to be interrogated because he believes it is part of a wider plot to eventually transfer him to the States. After taking his fight as far as the Surpreme Court he has has now exhausted all legal avenues to halt the extradition.

One of two lawyers representing Mr Assange in those proceedings, Mr Olsson insisted that the WikiLeaks founder would “leave Sweden a free man” if he agreed to face the charges. But he understood why his client had chosen to seek asylum because the threat from the United States “is not just hypothetical” ...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/julian-assanges-lawyer-admits-ecuadorian-asylum-bid-makes-him-look-like-a-suspect-7876458.html

[Hissyspit]

1. Or not.

"The threat of extradition is substantial."

[struggle4progress]

2. When their clients are con artists, dramatists, or paranoiacs, lawyers often fail to warn us of it

[Hissyspit]

4. Oh good god...

Plenty of people have figured it out WITHOUT hearing from the lawyers. You a big fan of Sweden's rendition record under Bush?

http://www.hrw.org/news/2006/11/09/sweden-violated-torture-ban-cia-

Sweden Violated Torture Ban in CIA Rendition

Diplomatic Assurances Against Torture Offer No Protection From Abuse

The United Nations’ ruling that Sweden violated the global torture ban in its involvement in the CIA transfer of an asylum seeker to Egypt is an important step toward establishing accountability for European governments complicit in illegal US renditions, Human Rights Watch said today.

MORE

Attorneys sometimes tell the truth, too.

Subject line slander attempt a big fail.

[OnyxCollie]

5. The OP appears to have an irrational fixation on Julian Assange.

Perhaps it's due to the revelations about the Obama administration protecting the Bush administration from torture investigations, both here and abroad. Or maybe it's the execution of Iraqi men, women, and children by US military, and the airstrike called in to destroy the evidence. Whatever the case, the OP is doing his/her best to portray Julian Assange in a bad light.

[treestar]

12. What is wrong with being interested in a topic?

You could be accused of the same rational fixation.

Now as to what all that has to do with classified documents being exposed and whether or not that is a good thing - it actually makes the supporters of Julian look like they merely have an irrational hatred for the U.S.

[struggle4progress]

6. That didn't bother Assange before his application for residency in Sweden was declined 18/10/10

19 June 2012 Last updated at 15:58 ET
Timeline: sexual allegations against Assange in Sweden
Key dates in the case of sexual allegations against the founder of Wikileaks, Australian journalist and activist Julian Assange.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11949341

[Hissyspit]

7. What difference does that make?

[struggle4progress]

8. So it now rests with you to explain why Assange suddenly now has nightmares about returning to that

very same Sweden where he previously wished to encamp permanently

[Hissyspit]

10. Because he knows even more now than he did then?

Wasn't that hard.

[Iggy]

3. WTF??

So?

according to several buffoons in our congress, the powers that be in the pentagon,
etc., Assange is already a convicted, treasonous traitor.

They already have a nice cell picked out for him at Leavenworth.

[struggle4progress]

9. You should refresh your memory about what the words "treason" and "traitor" mean;

in the matter of Assange, that should spare you what would otherwise be the natural second exercise, namely, looking at the Constitutional definition of treason

[Iggy]

11. Huh?

It's not me that wants Assange stopped/locked up. I want him to continue.

I'm pointing out how the powers that be here think- including "I want more
transparency" Obama.
I

[treestar]

13. Why do you want him to continue?

Why should he be the judge of what gets exposed of US classified documents?

He's not even an American.

[Hissyspit]

14. ???

[treestar]

17. ??? indeed

People are letting themselves get hoodwinked here.

The more I learn about this case, the more obvious it is that it is a tempest in a teapot and people are letting themselves get worked up over it.

This guy faces no charges in the US and the charges he faces in Sweden are not all that serious ( but we do know from his remarks that Sweden has just too much feminism - but that's not persecution).

Sweden has a legal system - it does not have show trials, it is not picking on him for leaking US information.

[marmar]

15. The whole world was impacted by said classified documents.....

..... who gives a f**k what his nationality is?

[treestar]

16. The whole word was impacted?

How? Like some regimes now have names of dissidents? The US suffered some sort of punishment for its evil doings?