This is part of our live-coverage on Julian Assange's request for political asylum. The most recent news is available here. See the archives for coverage of previous days.
Follow @wl_central on Twitter for all the latest updates.
WikiLeaks announced via Twitter on the evening of June 19 (19:40 local time) that Julian Assange has requested political asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
This is part of our live-coverage on Julian Assange's request for political asylum. The most recent news is available here. See the archives for coverage of previous days.
Follow @wl_central on Twitter for all the latest updates.
WikiLeaks announced via Twitter on the evening of June 19 (19:40 local time) that Julian Assange has requested political asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
This is part of our live-coverage on Julian Assange's request for political asylum. The most recent news is available here. See the archives for coverage of previous days.
Follow @wl_central on Twitter for all the latest updates.
WikiLeaks announced via Twitter on the evening of June 19 (19:40 local time) that Julian Assange has requested political asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
This is part of our live-coverage on Julian Assange's request for political asylum. The most recent news is available here. See the archives for coverage of previous days.
Follow @wl_central on Twitter for all the latest updates.
WikiLeaks announced via Twitter on the evening of June 19 (19:40 local time) that Julian Assange has requested political asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
Julian Assange interview on ABC Radio National Breakfast, 21 June 2012. This is his first interview conducted since he applied for political asylum in Ecuador. At the time of this interview, Mr Assange had been at the Ecuadorian Embassy for three days. Full audio is available at the ABC Radio website.
Julian Assange's mother Christine recently tweeted the following facts about extraditions involving the US, the UK, Sweden, and Australia.
This is our live-coverage on Julian Assange's request for political asylum. See the archives for coverage of previous days.
In 2008, University of Chicago Chair and former Stockholm University professor Don Kulick observed: "From being admired and envied by many as beacons of sexual enlightenment in the 1960s and '70s, the Scandinavian countries today have some of the most repressive sex laws in the Western world. Sweden is the most draconian. ... The message conveyed by [recent laws] is clear: your sexuality is the property of the state, and the state will claim its right to regulate and punish that sexuality, wherever you may be. So whatever, indeed, happened to sex in Scandinavia?"
Although it does not directly answer Kulick's question, Oscar Swartz's new book, A Brief History of Swedish Sex: How the Nation That Gave Us Free Love Redefined Rape and Declared War on Julian Assange, traces the change that Kulick describes. Structured as a timeline, the volume vividly illustrates how a political coup by a group of radical feminists at the highest levels of government caused the free-love era of "Swedish sin" to give way to a wave of anti-sex and anti-male hysteria that vilified heterosexual sex and villainized men. It was into this morass that WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange waded when he had consensual sexual relations with Anna Ardin and Sofia Wilén -- and then became the target of a Sweden-initiated international manhunt.
"Between 70 and 80 per cent of Australians
support the work of WikiLeaks..." Senator Scott Ludlam
Earlier today, I spoke to Greens Senator for Western Australia, Scott Ludlam, about the threat of extradition for WikiLeaks Editor in Chief, Julian Assange, in light of expanding US military presence in Asia Pacific and broadening military ties between Australia and the United States.
On May 30, the UK Supreme Court ruled in favor of Julian Assange's extradition to Sweden, five to two. But Mr Assange's lawyer Dinah Rose QC - as an act of quick thinking which earned her The Guardian's "star of the week" - raised a point which was able to delay his extradition and potentially reopen the case as a whole. Since the decision was based on interpretation of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties - something not brought up during the February proceedings - Ms Rose argued that the defence hadn't the chance to properly contest the point.
Mr Assange's legal team has until June 13 to make an application on this matter. The Supreme Court will then decide whether or not to reopen the case. If reopened, the court will accept more submissions, either in document form or via further hearings. If not, the ruling will stand and Mr Assange will be extradited to Sweden within 10 days.
Julian Assange has spent over 550 days in detainment without charge. Sweden wishes to extradite him solely for the purpose of questioning, yet denies all offers to question him in the UK, despite it being completely legal to do so.
His battle is far from over and people around the world must continue to stand up and support him.
For further reading see Per E Samuelson's "Julian Assange's concerns are justified" (English translation here) and WSWS's "Defend Julian Assange".
The Hon Julia Gillard MP
Prime Minister
Parliament House
CANBERRA ACT 2600 4 June 2012
Dear Prime Minister
RE: JULIAN ASSANGE
Regrettably we feel compelled to write to you about the plight of Mr Assange.
Julian Assange interviewed on Late Night Live Radio, 6 June 2012. Full audio is available via the RadioNational website.
Phillip Adams: Good day, beloved listeners. Last night on this little wireless program, I was talking to Shapiro about the Obama kill-list. It's pretty dangerous being deemed an enemy of the American people these days, because at any moment a drone will come in and take you out. And of course tonight we've learned that another member of Bin Laden Proprietary Limited has been killed by one of those precision attacks. I think if I was Julian Assange, I'd be more concerned with a drone attack than with mere extradition, but let's see how Julian is feeling at this time of, well, endless strife. Julian, who's talking to us from his hideout in the English countryside where he's under house arrest, joins us on the program. How are you coping with this incredible stress level?
Julian Assange interviewed on 2UE Radio, 4 June 2012. Full audio is available via the 2UE website.
Tim Shaw: Well, I'm really pleased to say, as promised, joining me live on the line from London is founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange. Good morning from here, good afternoon/evening to you, Julian.
Julian Assange: Good morning.
The following is an open letter to the Australian people from Christine Assange, mother of Julian Assange.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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