General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: If the US wants Julian Assange, why not extradite him directly from the UK? [View all]SidDithers
(44,228 posts)as far as I know, Assange hasn't committed any crimes in the UK.
The UK was honouring the European Arrest Warrant that Sweden issued on Assange, so. That's what nations with extradition agreements do. If Sweden issues a warrant for Assange's arrest, and Assange is living in London, then the UK police arrest him. So they took him into custody and prepared to ship him off to Sweden. At that point, Assange used the UK court system to fight extradition, and he lost at every level.
If the US had requested extradition, that request would have been treated the same as the request from Sweden. Assange would have been taken into custody, and then he again would have access to the UK court system to fight the extradition.
I don't know what happens if two nations are both requesting extradition of the same individual. I would guess that somewhere there are protocols in place that take into consideration the alleged crimes in each nation, or the potential sentence.
Edit: the incentive for the UK to cooperate with an extradition request from the US, is that there would be an expectation that the US would assist with any UK extradition request, if the UK were seeking a criminal who had fled to the US.
Sid