"The Swedish prosecutor's statement today is acutely misleading.
She
falsely states that 'Julian Assange, on his own accord, has evaded
prosecution by seeking refuge in the Embassy of Ecuador'. Assange sought
and was
granted political asylum from persecution under a US
'espionage' investigation,
not from any Swedish prosecutor as Ecuador's
asylum declaration makes clear. He has not 'evaded prosecution' in
Sweden. There is
at present no prosecution. The
prosecutor admitted in a
submission to a Swedish district court on the 16th of July 2014 that
she has not even decided whether to charge Julian Assange.
He has not
been charged.
She claims she sought to interview Assange in the embassy and implies
that he refused. In fact,
Assange has been demanding that the prosecutor
take his statement for five years. It was Assange who initiated the
request to hold an interview, and
he placed no reservations on the
desired interview, because it was his wish that it would happen as soon
as possible. This is made clear by this diplomatic cable between Ecuador
and Sweden:
http://is.gd/tYSgEU
She also claims that she asked Ecuador for permission to interview
Assange but that she has not been given permission. In fact,
Ecuador has
been asking the prosecutor to interview Assange for three years, and
for three years she has refused. For months, she has refused to enter
into a dialogue with Ecuador on the mutual assistance parameters of the
interview, a dialogue that is necessary before an interview can take
place. In her statement, the prosecutor says that she hopes to conduct a
further hearing, since 'there is an ongoing dialogue on the issue
between Sweden and Ecuador'.
She neglects to mention that Sweden only
agreed to Ecuador's repeated requests to enter dialogue two days ago,
after refusing Ecuador's invitations for the last three years.
Both the Swedish Court of Appeals and the Swedish Supreme Court have
rebuked the prosecutor for
failing to advance her preliminary
investigation. Responsibility for today's outcome fully belongs to the
Swedish prosecutor."
- Melinda Taylor
EU-NATO IMPERIALISM ❌ 