Why doesn't Sweden interview Assange in London? (Anya Palmer)

[struggle4progress]

... In the Swedish system formal indictment takes place at a very late stage in proceedings, following a second and final interview with the suspect, and in the case of a person in pre-trial detention, trial must follow within two weeks ...

(3) Sweden recently interviewed a murder suspect in Serbia; why can't Assange be interviewed in London?
This argument has been doing the rounds on Twitter recently. Here's the newspaper report they commonly link to ...

This report dates to 22 March 2012 and says that Swedish investigators have travelled to Serbia to interview a 21 year old man suspected of the murder of a 26 year old man in Uppsala. However, there is nothing in the report to suggest that this is the second interview prior to charge which Assange is now required to undergo. The report says that Swedish police and investigators "have now interviewed the 21 year old man" which clearly suggests they had not interviewed him previously.

In Assange's case, he already had his initial interview on 30 August 2010 before he left Sweden. So to compare his case with that of the 21 year old interviewed in Serbia is simply not comparing like with like ...

http://storify.com/anyapalmer/why-doesn-t-sweden-interview-assange-in-london?utm_campaign=&utm_medium=sfy.co-twitter&awesm=sfy.co_e56c&utm_content=storify-pingback&utm_source=t.co

[Agnosticsherbet]

1. This has an excellent answer to that question.

[link:http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/david-allen-green/2012/08/legal-myths-about-assange-extradition|Legal myths about the Assange extradition
]
Link to DU thread http://www.democraticunderground.com/101639367

[treestar]

2. So much dis-information is out there

It starts to be an education in Swedish legal procedure, as every Julian-supporter finds something "wrong" and "unfair" against him and then we learn why it happened.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing - they think they've found the golden calf which will finally prove that poor Julian is being railroaded.

He should have just been more respectful to the two women (who do want him prosecuted - that was another lie).

[struggle4progress]

3. It's been an interesting bit of manipulation

Less than two weeks pass, from the time Assange allegedly has sex with the first woman, until his Wikileaks pal "Israel Shamir" is writing in Counterpunch, to accuse the women by name of being radical feminists with CIA ties

Then there are the little lies, repeated over and over again, such as: Assange only left the country after the Swedish prosecutors gave him their permission -- and then suddenly, once he was in England, they inexplicably wanted him for questioning -- when in fact, the UK courts established by Assange fled from Sweden while Swedish prosecutors were in contact with his lawyer, trying to schedule a second interview

[dipsydoodle]

4. Regardless of that

if Scotland yard, here in the UK , wanted to interview someone in connection with......., they send police officers to wherever to do so. The oddity here is that Sweden didn't just do the same and send someone over here to do so.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

5. scotland yard however

would not send police officers to lets say Sweden to arrest somebody in person. they would have requested that Sweden arrest and extradite him to the UK(which is exactly what Sweden did)

Due to the differences in the system of law used, this 'interview' is not so much for information gathering as its to present him with the case against him before charges are brought against him(and likely arrest) as required by Swedish law.

That's why there is no sense for Sweden to go to the UK for the interview since they could not arrest him after presenting the case against him to him(all they could have done is request the UK to extradite him....which they did and he skipped bail on once he lost it after 2 years of appeals by him to try and overturn the losses on earlier appeals)

[dipsydoodle]

7. The issue was/remains "wanted for questioning"

and that's all. The issue wasn't/isn't arrest.

[reorg]

8. You hold the Swedish system in very low esteem

if you really believe the final interview with the accused is just a formality and has no bearing whatsoever regarding the collection of testimony and evidence. There would be no point in requiring such an interview if it is not for "information gathering".

Please cite the Swedish law that makes the requirement and show us that it is just meant to be a formality.

Regardless, it seems to make perfect sense for the prosecution to get the interview over with. They can then charge and try him in absentia without further ado, if they still believe they have a case.

[struggle4progress]

10. Here's a nice link for you: Why doesn't Sweden interview Assange in London? (Anya Palmer)

http://storify.com/anyapalmer/why-doesn-t-sweden-interview-assange-in-london?utm_campaign=&utm_medium=sfy.co-twitter&awesm=sfy.co_e56c&utm_content=storify-pingback&utm_source=t.co

[reorg]

6. Shamir was neither the first nor the only one

to point out that Anna Ardin, the woman who let Assange stay in her apartment and jumped in bed with him the first day they met had written a thesis on Cuban opposition groups for which purpose she had contacted such groups over a longer period of time, in Cuba and in Miami. Some of these groups are known to have ties to the CIA, so not much of a mystery there. The thesis was and probably still is online, in the foreword Ardin relates all of this (except for the groups' CIA ties, which can be verified independently).

That Ardin sees herself as a feminist was also no secret as soon as she was outed on a Swedish blog. She had her own blog which was still online in the first days after the scandal broke, with some very telling contributions such as the one how to get back at a cheating lover by accusing him of rape, and other discussions about rape indicating she was very aware of the intricacies and supposed flaws of Swedish rape law. I have read all this stuff myself several days before Shamir reported on it. He happens to reside in Sweden and apparently speaks the language, so naturally he was in a better position than, say, other Counterpunch writers to research and read about the issue.

The grammar in your "the little lies" paragraph is a little confused, I assume you meant to say that some court "established" that Assange had "fled". Well, obviously he submitted to a police interview, was available after that for several weeks, made an early offer to be questioned by the prosecutor which was declined because allegedly some or other police officer had called in sick. Apparently, Assange later changed his mind about being available in Sweden for times on end. Wether he knew of the proposed interview date at this point or at any other point in time before he left can perhaps be "reasonably assumed", but has not been "established" as fact by any court. It is, frankly, a little ridiculous for the court to claim he "fled" when he in fact only travelled to another EU country and never made a secret of his whereabouts, a country which, as we have seen, has to comply with arrest orders by Swedish prosecutors via the European Arrest Warrant system.

He has consistently offered to be interviewed by the prosecutor, but only outside of Sweden because he reasonably fears political persecution once he is imprisoned in Sweden.

Hope this helps.

[struggle4progress]

9. Prior to Assange's flight from Sweden on 27 Sep 10, Swedish authorities repeatedly attempted

ithrough his lawyer to schedule a second interview

In UK court, Assange's lawyer originally misrepresented the facts regarding that, and he was forced to retract some of his testimony

Assange had also communicated to the prosecutors that he would return to Sweden and become available for an interview in mid-October. That never happened either

The simplest explanation is that Assange has just been playing games with everyone

That is true, in particular, of the attempts to slur the two women. Less than two weeks after Assange allegedly had sex with the first woman, there is a coordinated smear against both. It shows up on Counterpunch as a hit piece by "Israel Shamir." The Counterpunch piece exhibits two different strategies: the women are called extreme feminists, and they are accused of CIA involvement. At least one of these strategies can be attributed to Assange: as soon as he landed in the UK, Assange was accusing the women of being extreme feminists. Since the Counterpunch article author is a close Assange associate, the simplest guess is that the smear campaign was coordinated with Assange's help, especially if it was quickly worked out somewhat before the Counterpunch piece was published

[reorg]

11. well, the simplest explanation is

that the whole thing was cooked up by some political hacks in that Christian group of the social democratic party. You know, the kind of hacks that would go to great lengths to advance their career and establish "credibility" with their party elders, and would even put a lot of time and work into this.

But, as I already told you, Shamir only reported things that were widely discussed on Swedish blogs. Only a naive US American can assume that Assange was somehow "behind it", the facts about Anna Ardin were independently proven way before Shamir even mentioned them, with her own, if unwitting, help.

[struggle4progress]

12. An article smearing Assange's accusers, written by one of Assange's friends, partly devoted

to a take on the accusers that Assange himself has used -- no! there's no way Assange could have had anything to do with the article!

[reorg]

13. who said anything about "could have"

you sound like a true believer in conspiracies. If it "could have happened", surely it "must have", I guess? Well ... in that case, Assange, the great conspirator and mover of world forces must be behind everything. Perhaps he dons a black coat at night and flies through the skies, laughing at us little nitwits who know nothing about how he enrages and manipulates the whole world ...

Anna Ardin was outed pretty quickly, in part through information in the tabloid that first published the rape smear. I followed the information as it transpired and was expanded upon in a Swedish blog, step by step. Sweden is not such a big country, you know, and Stockholm not such a big city. People know people, you know.

She apparently had not taken this into acount and failed to delete whatever could be found from and about her online quickly enough. Several blogs reported this, you just did not find out about it. Perhaps you should have followed the discussions we had on DU, before Shamir published his piece, which I happily quoted here, though, because it sums up the story pretty neatly.