The UN ruling is a significant victory after Julian Assange was imprisoned in the Ecuadorian Embassy for more than three years with no access to sunlight and hospital treatment. He avoided extradition to Sweden on sex charges.
The UK foreign secretary described the UN ruling as 'frankly ridiculous' and saying Assange was a fugitive from justice who would come out any time he chooses.
It was not about the sex charges, it was really about divulging US state secrets on his website Wikileaks. It was confirmed that a newspaper report says that US had a plane standing by in Sweden to take Assange to the United States.
It is a theatre of absurdity and a farce with the UK government facing humiliation for trying to arrest Assange on the request of Sweden for sex charges. Sweden issued an EU warrant for his arrest.
Assange feared he will be taken to the US, and he feared that despite not committed a sex crime, he will not get fair trial and real justice. That the prison conditions in Sweden may be appalling.
He thinks that being a whistleblower is not a crime, as Wikileaks is an official website and the public around the world has a right to transparency for security reasons meaning that democracy cannot have their security threatened by any country including US. If CIA is planning an offensive, we have a right to know and so on.
UK would not bat an eyelid if one of the Swedish nationals committed a sex crime, and would not issue an EU warrant for one's arrest. It is preposterous that EU warrant is used for sex crimes or any other minor crimes.
It is also preposterous that no evidence was produced prior to extradition. We can expel anyone who committed a minor crime or not, but not without real evidence.
Extradition all around the world must not be done without producing evidence, and countries must not violate human rights to have a fair trial and real justice, and good prison conditions. It is violation to extradite anyone for any minor crime with or without proof.
I hope that Assange will be the last person ever to use such an embassy as embassies should not be used as a refuge. Assange was exceptional as he is a Wikileaks founder, and has a right to expose any information which would be a threat to democracy and transparency.
It has all been blown out of proportion leading to violations of Assange's human rights.
Assange should be allowed to leave the embassy a free man, and should get compensation for his 'arbitrary detention'.
No comments:
Post a Comment