Swedish justice for Assange first, demand British lawmakers
More than 70 MPs and peers have urged the British government to ensure Julian Assange is extradited to Sweden to face sex assault charges against him.
The parliamentarians have written to Sajid Javid, the home secretary, asking him to make sure the WikiLeaks founder faces justice in Sweden before he is extradited to the US to face conspiracy charges for the leak of government secrets.
The letter, from mainly Labour MPs and peers, appears to mark a growing division within the party over its attitude to Assange, coming after Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott criticised any moves to extradite him to the US. Some Labour members fear their leadership’s support for Assange is an insult to victims of sex attacks.
Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, said: “I think that what should happen is that he should be extradited to Sweden and then the Americans can make a further application to have him extradited from Sweden.
“Whenever I see pictures of Assange or hear about him, I think of two women in Sweden. They deserve a day in court. They deserve justice.”
Thornberry posted in a tweet yesterday: “Why weren’t Swedish authorities told in advance of Assange’s ejection from Ecuadorean embassy, as the US clearly was?
“Our priority should be to the alleged victims of sexual violence in Sweden and not a ruse to get him extradited to the US as a whistleblower.”
Corbyn told Sky News: “If there are allegations Assange needs to answer of sexual attacks that may or may not have taken place in Sweden, then it’s a matter for the courts to decide. But I do think he should answer those questions.”
● Assange would co-operate with Swedish authorities if they reopened a rape case against him but would continue to resist any bid to extradite him to the US, his lawyer says.
“We are absolutely happy to answer those queries if and when they come up,” Jennifer Robinson told Sky News television about the rape claims. “The key issue at the moment is US extradition, which we have warned about for many years.”
The WikiLeaks founder is in custody in London awaiting sentencing for breaching his British bail conditions in 2012 by seeking refuge in Ecuador’s London embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden.
Arrested at the embassy last Thursday after Ecuador gave him up, he is now also fighting a US extradition warrant relating to the release by WikiLeaks of a huge cache of state documents.
The Australian has always denied the claims of sexual assault and rape in Sweden. The first expired in 2015 and the other was dropped in 2017, but the complainant has now asked for the case to be reopened.
If Stockholm makes a formal extradition request, the British government will have to decide whether to consider it before or after that of the US.
Robinson said Assange would seek assurances from Sweden that he would not be sent on to America, adding: “That is the same assurance we were seeking in 2010 and the refusal is why he sought asylum.”
She said: “He’s not above the law. Julian has never been concerned about facing British justice or indeed Swedish justice. This case is and has always been about being sent to face American injustice.”
The US indictment charges Assange with “conspiracy” for working with former US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to crack a password on department of defence computers in March 2010.
He faces up to five years in jail. The conspiracy charge seems intended to sidestep limits on prosecution potentially arising from the US Constitution’s First Amendment guarantee of press freedom.
But Robinson insisted: “This indictment clearly engages newsgathering activities and the kinds of communications that journalists have with sources all the time.”
The lawyer condemned as “outrageous” claims made by Ecuador about Assange’s behaviour in the embassy, including that he smeared his faeces on the wall, saying: “That’s not true.” –