UK court backs extradition of WikiLeaks boss to Sweden
Source: Agencies |
May 31, 2012, Thursday
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BRITAIN'S Supreme Court has endorsed the extradition of WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange to Sweden, bringing the secret-spilling Internet activist a big step closer to prosecution in a Scandinavian court.
But a question mark hung over the decision after Assange's lawyer made the highly unusual suggestion that she would try to reopen the case, raising the prospect of more legal wrangling.
Assange, 40, has spent the better part of two years fighting attempts to send him to Sweden, where he is wanted on sex crime allegations. He has yet to be charged.
The UK side of that struggle came to an uncertain end yesterday, with the nation's highest court ruling 5-2 that the warrant seeking his arrest was properly issued - and Assange's lawyer saying she might contest the ruling.
Supreme Court President Nicholas Phillips acknowledged that coming to a conclusion in the high-profile case had "not been simple."
But he said the court concluded that "the request for Mr Assange's extradition has been lawfully made and his appeal against extradition is accordingly dismissed."
Assange lawyer Dinah Rose complained that the ruling largely relied on a treaty whose interpretation she never got to challenge, requesting time to study the judgment with an eye toward trying to reopen the case.
Such a maneuver is practically unheard of, according to attorney Karen Todner, whose law firm handles many high-profile extradition cases.
"I've never known them to reopen a case," she said.
Phillips gave Rose two weeks to make her move, meaning an extradition wouldn't happen until the second half of June at the earliest.
It could be much later. Even if the Supreme Court refuses to revisit its judgment, Assange could appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, although Todner said he was unlikely to make much headway there unless he could argue that his physical safety or psychological well-being would be at risk in Sweden.
Assange, a former computer hacker from Australia, shot to international prominence in 2010 with the release of hundreds of thousands of secret US documents, including a hard-to-watch video that showed US forces gunning down a crowd of Iraqi civilians and journalists that they'd mistaken for insurgents.
His release of a quarter-million classified US State Department cables in the final months of that year outraged Washington and destabilized American diplomacy worldwide.
But his work exposing government secrets came under a cloud after two Swedish women accused him of rape after a visit to the country in mid-2010. Assange denies wrongdoing, saying the sex was consensual, but has refused to go to Sweden, claiming he won't get a fair trial there.
He and his supporters have also hinted that the sex allegations are a cover for a planned move to extradite him to the United States, where he claims he's been secretly indicted for the WikiLeaks disclosures.
But a question mark hung over the decision after Assange's lawyer made the highly unusual suggestion that she would try to reopen the case, raising the prospect of more legal wrangling.
Assange, 40, has spent the better part of two years fighting attempts to send him to Sweden, where he is wanted on sex crime allegations. He has yet to be charged.
The UK side of that struggle came to an uncertain end yesterday, with the nation's highest court ruling 5-2 that the warrant seeking his arrest was properly issued - and Assange's lawyer saying she might contest the ruling.
Supreme Court President Nicholas Phillips acknowledged that coming to a conclusion in the high-profile case had "not been simple."
But he said the court concluded that "the request for Mr Assange's extradition has been lawfully made and his appeal against extradition is accordingly dismissed."
Assange lawyer Dinah Rose complained that the ruling largely relied on a treaty whose interpretation she never got to challenge, requesting time to study the judgment with an eye toward trying to reopen the case.
Such a maneuver is practically unheard of, according to attorney Karen Todner, whose law firm handles many high-profile extradition cases.
"I've never known them to reopen a case," she said.
Phillips gave Rose two weeks to make her move, meaning an extradition wouldn't happen until the second half of June at the earliest.
It could be much later. Even if the Supreme Court refuses to revisit its judgment, Assange could appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, although Todner said he was unlikely to make much headway there unless he could argue that his physical safety or psychological well-being would be at risk in Sweden.
Assange, a former computer hacker from Australia, shot to international prominence in 2010 with the release of hundreds of thousands of secret US documents, including a hard-to-watch video that showed US forces gunning down a crowd of Iraqi civilians and journalists that they'd mistaken for insurgents.
His release of a quarter-million classified US State Department cables in the final months of that year outraged Washington and destabilized American diplomacy worldwide.
But his work exposing government secrets came under a cloud after two Swedish women accused him of rape after a visit to the country in mid-2010. Assange denies wrongdoing, saying the sex was consensual, but has refused to go to Sweden, claiming he won't get a fair trial there.
He and his supporters have also hinted that the sex allegations are a cover for a planned move to extradite him to the United States, where he claims he's been secretly indicted for the WikiLeaks disclosures.
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