Assange

Per E Samuelson and Thomas Olsson write to SvD.

That a prosecutor can continue a preliminary investigation for four years and not question the suspect violates the demand for expediency. This is a strong reason to rescind the warrant against Julian Assange, write his lawyers.

Our client Julian Assange has been arrested in his absence for almost four years. He's spent the past two years at the Ecuador embassy in London, protected by political asylum. The London police guard the building day and night, but they can't enter the building. We have, time and again, demanded that the prosecutor [Marianne Ny] travel to London to question Assange. She refuses.

We've asked the Stockholm district court to rescind the warrant to break the deadlock. That would force the prosecutor to think differently. The matter will be dealt with in court 16 July.

Sweden will soon hold the Stockholm Internet Forum to discuss global development and global surveillance. The forum will open on 26 May and will be held in the famed Stadshuset, site of the annual Nobel banquet. The motto of the conference will be 'Internet Freedom for Global Development'.

What: Solidarity Vigil in Support of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks
When: Thursday 19 June 2014 6-8pm
Where: Ecuadorian Embassy in London, No 3 Hans Crescent, Knightsbridge

Friday 28 March. The Ecuadorean Embassy in London. Behind him: a green screen, in front of which he films for Skype and the social networks. Threatened by the United States, the founder of WikiLeaks has been confined for two years to a room at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. He was visited by Eva Joly who is working on breaking the deadlock.

Late on Wednesday evening 15 August 2012, the Metropolitan police surrounded the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. This followed the publication by the Ecuadorean government of the aide memoir from William Hague, the British Foreign Secretary, on how the diplomatic status of their London embassy could be revoked.

Observers assumed that the arrival of the police must be the presage to a raid. For those watching the unfolding events, in the end it all turned out to be an anticlimax. Though the outcome could have turned out very differently had it had not been for the interventions of certain cyber warriors - in the UK, Australia and elsewhere - whose quick-wittedness may have ensured that a major international incident was averted.

Famed French-Norwegian prosecutor Eva Joly has come to Stockholm to try to resolve the standoff between Julian Assange and the Swedish prosecution service. She was interviewed by Malou von Sivers yesterday, after the day before holding a press conference about her visit. This is a translation and transcription of that interview. For background, see here.

Eva Joly MEP, former prosecutor, judge, and presidential candidate, now head of the EU Parliamentary Committee on Development, gave a press conference on the Assange case in Stockholm 27 March 2014. Also present was Jon Thorisson of the Eva Joly Institute in Iceland. Part two of two. See part one here.

Famed French-Norwegian prosecutor Eva Joly has come to Stockholm to try to resolve the standoff between Julian Assange and the Swedish prosecution service. She was interviewed by Malou von Sivers yesterday, after the day before holding a press conference about her visit.

Eva Joly MEP, former prosecutor, judge, and presidential candidate, now head of the EU Parliamentary Committee on Development, gave a press conference on the Assange case in Stockholm 27 March 2014. Also present was Jon Thorisson of the Eva Joly Institute in Iceland. Part one of two.

Retired Swedish district prosecutor Rolf Hillegren wrote a powerful op-ed for conservative daily SvD (Svenska Dagbladet) asking for the Assange case to be closed.

Friday 29 November 2013, 12:00 GMT

In the face of the US government's three-year attack on WikiLeaks, an anonymous Department of Justice official talking to the Washington Post now claims that there is little possibility of prosecuting Julian Assange for publishing, but that a Grand Jury remains empanelled and the situation may change. So, we have a much-hedged statement by someone who cannot be identified claiming that the government may not indict Julian Assange for publishing. This is hardly the assurance that WikiLeaks and Julian Assange need. It is hardly the assurance that others who seek to reveal material that might offend the government need to carry on their activities. The damage to a free press by this heavy-handed, unwarranted and continued investigation into a publisher is severe.

Wednesday 6 November 2013, 18:30 CET

As a journalist I have spent the last four months with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and arrived in Germany over the weekend. I worked in Hong Kong as part of the WikiLeaks team that brokered a number of asylum offers for Snowden and negotiated his safe exit from Hong Kong to take up his legal right to seek asylum. I was travelling with him on our way to Latin America when the United States revoked his passport, stranding him in Russia. For the next 39 days I remained with him in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, where I assisted in his legal application to 21 countries for asylum, including Germany, successfully securing his asylum in Russia despite substantial pressure by the United States. I then remained with him until our team was confident that he had established himself and was free from the interference of any government.

Assange lawyer Per E Samuelson has confirmed that a criminal complaint has been filed at 09:44 on Tuesday 3 September 2013 with Swedish police authorities. The complaint concerns the likely unlawful seizure of WikiLeaks property on 27 September 2010, following publication of the Afghan War Diaries. Additional affidavits and articles of evidence used in the complaint have been ready for a year, but the filing was held off until now for various reasons.

A similar complaint has been filed in Germany and complaints in two additional jurisdictions are to follow.

Alex Gibney's film "We Steal Secrets" has been derided from the beginning and it met with disastrous results at the box office in the US. Gibney's attempt to market the film to an international audience fared no better.

But criticism of Gibney's film has heretofore concentrated on enumerating the bewildering number of instances of Gibney's sloppy research.

Now Jonathan Cook, the award-winning reporter who once exposed the hidden agenda of the Guardian, writes for Counterpunch, where he takes things a step further and accuses Gibney outright of deliberately misleading the public.

Someone's panicking. Late on Saturday 6 July 2013, the Independent published an article by Archie Bland: "In depth: Julian Assange and Edward Snowden - enemies of the state take flight" about the legal and physical limbo both find themselves in as a result of their whistleblowing and publishing activities. Disqus comments were open underneath the article and throughout the day on Sunday readers engaged in a lively discussion.

Sweden and the UK have blocked talks between Europe and the US on the surveillance scandal. The talks, due to begin Monday, will now be limited to the more abstract issues of privacy and PRISM. A second working group, to be set up to confront the US with the most recent developments, had the support of the entire EU save Sweden and the UK, who both used their veto to prevent its formation.

Statement by Julian Assange after One Year in Ecuadorian Embassy

Saturday June 22nd, 15:00 GMT

It has now been a year since I entered this embassy and sought refuge from persecution.

As a result of that decision, I have been able to work in relative safety from a US espionage investigation.

But today, Edward Snowden's ordeal is just beginning.

Thank you for this honor.

I am very happy to be sharing it with Noam Chomsky whose generosity and strength of character I have felt personally. Noam, you are the sea--relentless and enduring. You have crashed wave after wave of understanding into towering cliffs of lies, eroding them at their base. If the rotten foreshore of empire collapses it will be for this reason. You have inspired and continue to inspire many, including me.

Thank you to the people in this room for supporting this award. I'm going to thank you and Dan in the best way I know. By keeping this speech short. Then you can go and do the important thing. Make alliances to fight for WikiLeaks, Bradley Manning and me. Don't think you can escape just because I am not there. We have a lot more spies in this room than the FBI.

On 3 February 2013 at a private dinner at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, attended by more than 150 guests, Julian Assange will receive the Yoko Ono Lennon Courage Award for the Arts 2013 for his WikiLeaks work including, amongst other releases, Collateral Murder. This award is given to people who have displayed extraordinary courage and who through their artistry have changed the world.