A bit of a polarising subject, but Julian Assange - is he a hero, or is he a helmet?
So the UN's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention have officially decided that he should be released and receive compensation from both the UK and Swedish governments due to his "
arbitrary detention"; the detention that is, which involves him skipping bail and hiding in an embassy whilst there's a European Arrest Warrant out in his name for rape.
It's quite clear that the man himself is a narcissist - not that this should detract from his achievements, which actually seem to be limited to being the self imposed "Editor In Chief" of Wikileaks. That is, he enabled other people to put their necks on the line by breaching things like the Official Secrets Act but, as an individual, actually didn't do anything that dangerous himself.
There's also a very interesting site -
https://govwaste.co.uk/ - which looks at how the £13,700,000+ that's been spent on securing the Ecuadorian embassy could've been used elsewhere.
My vote? Helmet. After wasting £13.7 million pounds on this debacle I think there should be some form of direct consultation with Ecuador and the situation of him residing in their embassy should be resolved once and for all. Preferably this would involve his arrest, facing the rape investigation in Sweden and (perhaps after any subsequent sentences out there) coming back and doing some time for his bail breaches in the UK.
If the best we could get was safe passage to Ecuador I'd take that though; ultimately, the sooner we can forget that this guy even exists the better.
Comments
He should go to Sweden to face charges for rape.
My gut says that Sweden/UK/Ecuador should not extradite him to the US, which I believe is ultimately the reason why he's hiding in South America.
As to the police costs, totally ridiculous. We should have just suspended all diplomatic relations with Ecuador, shut their embassy, sent their diplomats home and then arrested Assange and deported him to Sweden. So soon as he got on the plane, the diplomats could have been invited back while losing no sleep over whether they accepted the invitation or carried out a tit-for-tat expulsion.
Quote 1, courtesy of his lawyer: If it were false and entirely politically motivated then getting your lawyer to claim "Yeah, it could be illegal in Sweden but it isn't here!" is probably a bit of a dumb move..
Not nearly as dumb as openly admitting that the incident did occur though. In fact, it would also be considered rape in this country.
Quote 2, courtesy of his lawyer: So, the facts as per his own lawyer:
-> She expressed a desire not to have sexual intercourse without protection;
-> Assange had sexual intercourse with her, using protection;
-> Later on, she was woken up to Assange having sex with her again - but without protection, explicitly against the wishes that she expressed earlier on.
The lawyer's defence actually seems to revolve around the suggestion that he gained implied permission from her, during the act, and she was only capable of giving that implied consent because he had accidentally woken her up.
Considering this version of events is actually part of his defence, but still relies on him violating her permission - I would consider it pretty clear that he is guilty.
Here's the source for the quotes: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/jul/12/julian-assange-extradition-live-coverage
However the older I get the less faith I have in the 'Establishment' and part of me regards him as a 'hero' for the non-violent trouble he has caused to it.
His games have risked the lives of a lot of people who haven't been caught up in any dodgy deeds, and in the case of some of them have simply been trying to make their country a better place.
He should go to Sweden to face charges.
The kid who couldn't pull a girl when he was at school.
Totally support the wikileaks effort but can't condone what appears to be unsavoury behaviour of the worst kind.