Sweden vs. Assange: Justice will Prevail…

The world-famous Wikileaks leaker Julian Assange has lost a case in a British high court that has ruled he should be extradited to Sweden to fight his case related to rape allegations.

By Rakesh Raman

However, Assange (pictured above) can be allowed to appeal against the verdict in the supreme court if he is able to convince the high court judges that there is a need for the supreme court to look into the matter. Court has not yet fixed the date for hearing Assange if he has to challenge the high court’s decision against his appeal.

Here, you can access today’s (Nov. 2)  high court judgement in this case. And here is the summary of the judgement.

Assange has 14 days time to appeal again expressing his wish to go to the supreme court.

Meanwhile, the Australian founder of the secrets-revealing Wikileaks website has set up a comprehensive site: Sweden vs. Assange Justice will prevail… to explain the proceedings in this case.

And now he is also asking people to visit this site to know the background and updates on the case. The site writes that since August 2010, all discussions regarding the ’Swedish case’ have gravitated around the allegations against Assange and whether the arrest orders have been procedurally correct, not whether the allegations are true.

Julian Assange, it says, is prevented from responding to the allegations and from giving his version of events. His legal team by law cannot challenge the allegations on the facts of the case or through his own version of events. Instead, the legal team is limited to challenging the validity of the European Arrest Warrant instrument on narrow, mainly procedural grounds, the site laments.

A relatively new Twitter account “Justice For Assange” (that has just about 1,500 followers as compared to over 1.2 million for Wikileaks) said today “High Court Judges will decide on admissibility of appeal in open court in 21 days’ time.”

Big trouble for Wikileaks, a not-for-profit media organization that releases classified information for public consumption, began in November last year when it published 251,287 leaked United States embassy cables (communications).

It was stated to be the largest set of confidential documents ever to be released into the public domain. The documents informed people around the world about US Government’s covert foreign activities. (Read: Wikileaks Leaks Out Secret US Embassy Cables)

Later, believed to be under US Government’s pressure, Wikileaks’ major corporate partners severed their relations with the site to disrupt its activities aimed to expose the wrongdoings of various governments around the world. (Read: Wikileaks: All Leaks are being Plugged)

The Sweden vs. Assange site informs that in December 2010 Sweden issued two international warrants for Julian Assange’s arrest and he has been detained without charge since.

As more action is expected in the Assange extradition case, this site promises to provide fresh information to the readers as the case progresses. So, stay connected.

By Rakesh Raman, the managing editor of Raman Media Network.

You can also read: More Articles by the RMN Editor, Rakesh Raman

Photo courtesy: Wikipedia