Sweden Drops Phony Assange Rape Case

by Stephen Lendman

Since June 2012, he's been holed up in Ecuador's London embassy, granted political asylum by its government weeks later in response to phony Swedish rape charges.

Britain conspired with Washington to get Assange to Sweden, once there extradited to Washington where a reported sealed indictment charges him with spying under the WW I relic Espionage Act.

Neocon Attorney General Jeff Sessions calls arresting him "a priority…(W)e will seek to put some people in jail" for whistleblowing, he blustered. CIA head Mike Pompeo said he deserves the death penalty.

He lied saying "(i)t's time to call out WikiLeaks for what it really is: a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia."

"Julian Assange has no first amendment freedoms. He's sitting in an embassy in London. He's not a US citizen."

Anyone exposing US high crimes and other wrongdoing is vulnerable to police state arrest, prosecution, conviction and imprisonment for the crime of doing the right thing.

Swedish Public Prosecution director Marianne Ny saying she'll no longer pursue rape charges against Assange, her arrest warrant dropped, doesn't mean his ordeal is now over. Far from it.

His lawyer was way premature calling the decision a "total victory," adding "(t)he preliminary investigation has been dropped and the detention order has been withdrawn, and from Sweden's point of view this is now over."

That's the good news. What's bad is if he returns to Sweden (voluntarily or involuntarily) before the statute of limitations expires in 2020, the rape case could be reopened.

More serious is US authorities  wanting him extradited to America. Britain almost certainly will help get him there if he leaves Ecuador's embassy.

London's Metropolitan Police said a warrant for his arrest remains for failing to surrender to the courts on 29 June 2012. If he leaves Ecuador's embassy, it'll be executed. 

Virtual certain extradition to America will follow unless his lawyers can get the London arrest warrant dropped.

On Friday, WikiLeaks tweeted "UK states it will arrest Assange regardless & refuses to confirm or deny whether it has already received an extradition request from the US."

In February 2016, citing the findings of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, human rights expert Alfred de Zayas said Assange's detention violated provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

He called on UK and Swedish authorities to assure his safety, physical integrity, and right of free movement, along with paying damages for his long, unjustifiable ordeal - first as a political prisoner under house arrest, then refugee in Ecuador's embassy to avoid unjust extradition to Sweden, then America.

He stressed whistleblowers are vital human rights defenders, deserving high praise, not prosecution.

Assange's ordeal is far from over, subject to UK arrest, extradition to America, or CIA assassination if he leaves Ecuador's embassy.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. 

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. 

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