Assange legal team’s skeleton argument on strong ground

[Swagman]

by(barrister)Greg Barns

Julian Assange’s lawyers are going for the jugular in their attack on the Swedish and UK government’s attempts to extradite Assange to Sweden where there is an investigation under way concerning his alleged in involvement in sexual offences. Not only do Assange’s lawyers run the usual arguments about the offences not being extradition offences — that is, there are no like charges in English law — but they say that the Swedish prosecutor who wants Assange extradited has no authority to do so, and that the whole thing is an abuse of process.

Strong stuff, but if the 35-page skeleton argument that Assange’s legal team has filed overnight with the City of Westminster Magistrates Court, ahead of the hearing in early February, is correct in its view of the law, then the Swedes are cactus! (See video here of Assange’s brief appearance at Belmarsh Magistrates’ court in London overnight.)

The Swedish prosecutor who is handling the Assange sex offences matter, Marianne Ny, a Public Prosecutor in Gothenburg, has no power to seek extradition, say Assange’s lawyers. The submission cites media statements by Ny and correspondence she had with the Australian High Commission in London in December in which she made it clear that her “purpose in requesting an arrest warrant, and subsequently an , against Assange, was not in order to prosecute him, but in order to facilitate his ‘interrogation’, i.e. to facilitate his questioning.

the court filing can be read here: http://www.fsilaw.com/~/media/Files/Publications/IP_Media/Preliminary%20Assange%20Skeleton%20Argument%2011_01_11.ashx

http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/01/12/assange-legal-teams-skeleton-argument-on-strong-ground/

[dipsydoodle]

1. facilitate his "interrogation"

Yes - from the outset he was only wanted for questioning.


I think the use of the word interrogation maybe where something has been lost in translation.