Julian’s long wait on the dodge
But is the price too high to pay for Brit taxpayers?
ONLY the other day I was walking along a street in London when I turned to a friend and inquired: ‘‘Whatever happened to Julian Assange?’’ Having established that the founder of Wikileaks was in fact still alive inside his Ecuadorian embassy lair, marinating in his own juices under a vitamin D sun-lamp – we almost laughed.
It just seemed so ridiculous in the cold light of day that an adult could be allowed to hide. And not just anywhere – but in a country’s official residence, permanently surrounded by a coterie of armed police officers and to the tune of £12 million (NZ$29m) of taxpayers’ hard-earned dosh.
Assange went into hiding more than three years ago to avoid being questioned by Swedish prosecutors over allegations of rape and sexual misconduct made by two women he supposedly slept with during a visit to the country in 2010. This retreat was ‘‘necessary’’ because Assange and his supporters feared the whole thing was a ruse by the United States government to extradite him and put him on trial for espionage.
It turns out if you childishly avoid answering questions for long enough, allegations can just disappear. Who knew?
‘‘Patience is bitter but its fruit is sweet,’’ said the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Never a truer word was spoken it seems in terms of Assange’s situation, as three out of the four claims have evaporated as they reached their five-year expiry date under Swedish law.
And yet, it is worth noting, the one allegation that does not expire is the most serious: Assange has been accused by one of the women of raping her while she slept.
Prosecutors still have a further five years potentially to charge him over this claim because the statute of limitations for rape lasts a decade. That means Britain faces a further £20m bill in round-theclock policing of Assange – while he sips tea and discusses conspiracy theories with the likes of Lady Gaga and Yoko Ono (a fan of the sit-in protest – though even hers with John Lennon did not last this long).
I wish I was joking but I’m not.
This farce is very much a reality – playing out in the heart of Britain’s capital – and it needs to end.
Everyone deserves to be presumed innocent until proven otherwise – including Assange.
Equally, alleged rape victims deserve to preserve their anonymity. Neither of these things have happened in this extremely odd case – some jump to conclusions about the computer hacker while others blithely share the names of the two women making the claims.
Assange, however, is making it very difficult for people to believe his innocence (which he ardently protests in his autobiography), as he continues to refuse a journey to Sweden merely to answer some questions. It is completely unreasonable that he expects prosecutors to visit his den.
For a fan of utter transparency from authorities, this sort of preferential treatment is hardly fitting.
It is understandable when you have been behind the leak of government information that you might be a little paranoid.
But his fear of extradition by the US from the Scandinavian nation is not supported by a shred of evidence.
There are no charges against him in the US and, in 2013, the Washington Post reported the US justice department had concluded there was no way it could prosecute him. On top of that, Sweden’s extradition agreement with America (hailing from 1961) prohibits deporting suspects on the basis of a ‘‘political offence’’ or ‘‘an offence connected with a political offence’’.
In short, Assange’s predilection for conspiracy theories is perpetuating this self-inflicted and costly siege – as well, crucially, as stopping two women from moving on with their lives. So while the British Government routinely refuses asylum to women fleeing violence and rape in other countries (and if they do arrive, detaining them in terrible places such as Yarl’s Wood) it happily doles out £4m a year to protect someone accused of such crimes from answering a few questions.
At the moment it seems Britain is better at accusing the famous dead of sex crimes than it is at forcing those who are still alive, like Assange, to engage with the justice system.
It needs to get its priorities right.
It turns out if you childishly avoid answering questions for long enough, allegations can just disappear. Who knew?