A UK judge has ruled that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can be extradited to Sweden to face trial for sexual assault. Assange says he will continue to fight the ruling.
According to the Times, the judge ruled that the Swedish arrest warrant couldn’t “be said to be disproportionate” as it alleged “serious sexual offenses.” In order to allow extradition, the judge only had to assess the validity of the warrant, not the evidence against Assange. Assange wasn’t happy about that — he reportedly “lamented that the terms of the arrest warrant do not allow him to argue extradition based on the substance of the case.” On the courthouse steps, he said,
We will be considering our next step. […] No doubt there will be many attempts made to try to spin these proceedings as they occured today but they were merely technical. So please go to swedenversusassange.com if you wish to know what is really going on in this case.
That website contains an exhaustive description of the case from a pro-Assange standpoint. One section, titled “Gender Politics,” argues that Swedish feminism is responsible for the prosecution of Assange. The page reiterates claims that prosecutor Marianne Ny is “biased against men” and “a well-known radical feminist,” and alleges that feminism has essentially taken over Sweden:
A significant interest group, which can be broadly described as feminists, has gained prominence in Sweden since the 1980s. It is arguably more defining — almost as an ideology — in today’s Sweden than its (now unrecognisable) model of social democracy.
Essentially, the site echoes Assange’s claims that Sweden is the “Saudi Arabia of feminism.” It also attempts to frame his extradition as a social justice issue. The site’s homepage quotes U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, Theo van Boven: “If a country like Sweden — I respect Sweden a great deal. It has a long history, tradition and reputation for human rights. Now, if they start to ‘shake’ on these kinds of issues — to accommodate, to make concessions — what can we expect from other countries?” The idea that his legal battles are a matter of basic human rights may also form the basis for his appeal — according to the Guardian, he’ll have to show that his extradition is of “public importance” before an appeal will be granted. Assange may believe he has an inalienable human right to have sex with a woman while she’s sleeping, but so far, British courts don’t seem to agree. If his appeal is denied, he could be in Sweden by December.
WikiLeaks Founder Can Be Extradited To Sweden In Sex Abuse Case [NYT]
Julian Assange Loses Appeal Against Extradition [Guardian]