General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Context and the Assange case. [View all]struggle4progress
(118,282 posts)from the UK to Sweden, would require the consent of BOTH the UK and Sweden, and so such extradition would be litigable in both the Swedish and the UK courts, as well as in the European court in Strausbourg
Nobody thinks Assange is prosecutable in the US for merely publishing the material Manning provided him, due to US freedom of press law; and Assange clearly cannot be prosecuted under the articles applied in the Manning case. Were certain rather particular facts provable, Assange still might be prosecutable in the US for specific elements related to the Manning releases, but these facts are nowhere in evidence, so far as I can tell, and there's no known US indictment against Assange at present
Were there a US indictment against Assange, it seems unlikely that Sweden would agree extradite him, since Swedish extradition law would not allow extradition for activities not criminal in Sweden or for political offenses. Since Sweden has perhaps the strong transparency traditions and pro-transparency laws on earth, Assange could probably win a extradition-to-the-US case in Swedish court on the argument that his activities involved no cognizable crime in Sweden and that his activities were political in nature
Were there a US indictment against Assange, he would have been much more at risk for extradition from the UK, where the law is much friendlier towards government secrecy
Moreover, extradition from the UK to the US occurs regularly, while extradition from Sweden to the US is much less frequent