Sweden fights Assange bail decision

So, we’ve experienced in realtime the alignment of Mercury, Mars and Pluto, squared by the Moon. In predictable form with Mercury retrograde, the world’s top story is not quite resolved. Sweden is arguing that someone wanted on what amounts to a minor offense should not be allowed to be free pending his hearing (scheduled for Jan. 11) even on £200,000 bail, having surrendered his passport and wearing a tracking device. The humorous part of this is how many people are playing along with the charade that this is not about the U.S. government going after Assange for telling the truth about Iraq and Afghanistan. What amounts to a disagreement in personal relationships is being elevated into the crime of the century. We don’t have the Julian Assange Sex Tape (yet), but if you haven’t caught the story, a recently discovered personal listing from 2006, believed to be Assange’s, is making its rounds in the tabloids. Below is tonight’s article from The Guardian — about the proceedings in London today. — efc

Sweden tonight decided to fight a British judge’s decision to grant bail to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has spent more than a week in prison over sexual assault allegations involving two Swedish women.

A dramatic day in and around City of Westminster magistrates court saw Assange win bail, but then be forced to return to what his lawyer Mark Stephens described as “Dickensian conditions” at Wandsworth prison while the international legal battle played out.

Sweden has decided to contest the granting of bail to Assange, who is being held pending an extradition hearing, on the grounds that no conditions imposed by a judge could guarantee that he would not flee, a legal source told the Guardian.

The appeal will be heard by the high court this week. If he wins, Assange will still have to raise £200,000 in security to meet his bail conditions before being freed. Howard Riddle, the same senior district judge who last week ordered Assange be held on remand, granted bail with strict conditions, including a curfew and the wearing of a tag.

Today’s developments represent a small but significant victory for Assange, who is being forced to fight the Swedish sex crime allegations in the midst of a tsunami of controversy after the publication by WikiLeaks of thousands of classified US government cables.

The court drama came as a further tranche of cables was released detailing often futile efforts by the US and UK – involving substantial amounts of British taxpayers’ money – to block the thriving drug route from west Africa to Europe. The cables reveal countries struggling to cope with the booming trade while government officials sabotage anti-smuggling measures, officials tip off traffickers and vast shipments from South America pass through under the noses of customs. In one cable the president of Ghana is even forced to ask UK officials for help in screening his own entourage, who he fears could be carrying drugs through airports.

Today, in a packed courtroom, Assange’s barrister, Geoffrey Robertson QC, dismissed claims his client was a flight risk, saying that as a result of the past fortnight’s WikiLeaks stories, his face was known worldwide.

Robertson also gave a taste of what Assange’s argument could be when the extradition case begins in earnest. He said there was no allegation that Assange had used violence or injured the two women making allegations against him, and said one allegation that he had sex with a woman while she slept might not be an offence under English law.

Read more at The Guardian