Assange: asylum, bunkum and some hard facts

The amount of crap, abuse and just plain ignorance published  about the Assange extradition case is exceptional.

So here’s the facts, not, of course, that the protagonists are interested in something so mundane.

Assange’s case is that by extraditing him to Sweden he could then be extradited to the US where he could face the death penalty. This is garbage and his brief knows it. Nobody can be extradited from Europe to a country where he could face the death penalty (apart from which he can’t be charged with espionage, which does carry the death penalty for reasons that I have explained previously).

His claim for asylum is bogus. He must have a well-founded fear of persecution in his home country. As he is Australian this is clearly palpable nonsense. The International Convention on refugees says that you can’t claim asylum if there are reasons to believe that you have committed serious non-political crime outside the country of refuge.

Assange has not been accused of a crime committed in England and it is nonsense to aver that he has been under ‘house arrest’ for 2 years. He was granted bail and has been living comfortably with a friend in the Suffolk countryside.

As I predicted, he has jumped bail leaving his friends short of the £200,000 bail money. That indicates the stripe of the man.

He is therefore liable to be arrested, but not as long as he is in diplomatic territory where  he is beyond the reach of the Old Bill. One suggestion was using the SAS to extract him a la Yvonne Fletcher. In that case the Libyan Embassy had been occupied by terrorists. It can’t be done legally in the present case.

Assange’s problem is that he will get his collar felt the moment he steps outside. Of course, he could be taken to the airport in an Embassy car, but then he has to get on a plane!

It looks as if his stay with the Ecuadoreans will be a long one. Enjoy!