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WIKILEAKS

UK court refuses to reopen Assange appeal

Britain's Supreme Court said on Thursday it has rejected an application by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to reopen his appeal against extradition to Sweden.

Published: 14 June 2012 15:51 CEST
UK court refuses to reopen Assange appeal

“The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom has dismissed the application made by Ms Dinah Rose QC, counsel for Mr Julian Assange, seeking to reopen their appeal,” the court said in a statement.

Seven Supreme Court justices unanimously dismissed the move by Assange’s lawyers as being “without merit”.

The court added that the 40-year-old Australian behind the whistleblowing website could not be extradited for at least two weeks.

“In addition, the Court has ordered that… the required period for extradition shall not commence until the 14th day after today,” it said.

The ruling means that Assange has exhausted all of the legal options available to him within the UK judicial system in his efforts to avoid extradition to Sweden.

Attorney Claes Borgström, who represents the women who have accused Assange of sexual assault and rape said there is now little recourse left for the WikiLeaks founder.

“Well, that’s it then. Assange has talked about the European Court of Human rights, and he has every right to do so, but it’s not going to affect the carrying out of the extradition,” he told the TT news agency when informed of the UK court’s decision on Thursday.

Now that the decision to extradite Assange has come into force in the UK, Swedish police have ten days to bring him to Sweden so he can face questioning from the Swedish prosecutor investigating the sex crime accusations against him.

“Within four days of his arrival, he’ll be put before a remand judge,” Karin Rosander, a spokesperson with the Swedish Prosecution Authority (Riksåklagaren) told TT.

The court’s decision comes in response to a highly unusual move in which Assange’s lawyers asked the court to re-open his appeal.

Last month, the court rejected Assange’s last-ditch effort to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning about allegations of rape and sexual assault.

The court, Britain’s highest, handed down its initial dismissal in the 18-month legal marathon after rejecting Assange’s argument that the Swedish prosecutor who issued the arrest warrant for him was not entitled to do so.

Assange has said previously he is prepared to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights, considered to be the final venue in which he could appeal of lower British court’s decision paving the way for his extradition to Sweden.

TT/AFP/The Local

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SPAIN

Spanish ring ‘tried to extort €3m from Wikileaks’: Assange lawyers

Julian Assange's lawyers have filed a court complaint in Spain against a group of Spaniards they allege extorted the WikiLeaks founder and Ecuador's foreign ministry, a source in his defence team said on Saturday.

Published: 27 April 2019 15:22 CEST
Spanish ring 'tried to extort €3m from Wikileaks': Assange lawyers
A video grab shows Julian Assange being driven away by British police after his arrest. Photo: AFP
Assange, who for seven years lived holed up in London's Ecuadoran embassy where he had taken refuge to avoid extradition to Sweden on rape accusations, was arrested on April 11 after Quito terminated his asylum.
   
The 47-year-old founder of WikiLeaks, which exposed everything from US military secrets to the wealthy's tax evasion, is now awaiting sentencing for breaching his British bail conditions in 2012.
 
The source, who wished to remain anonymous, said the complaint was against “a group of Spaniards who allegedly engaged in extortion and the embassy's employees and Ecuador's foreign ministry.”
   
The source added an investigation was ongoing and alleged “espionage” in the embassy against Assange, refusing to give further details.
 
According to Spanish media reports, four Spaniards have videos and personal documents of Assange. Online daily eldiario.es said they somehow got these via an alleged spying system set up in the embassy that included security cameras and employees taking photos of all documents handled by Assange.
   
They allegedly tried to extort three million euros ($3.3 million) out of WikiLeaks not to publish any of it, Spanish media report.
   
Eldiario.es, which had access to the written complaint that was filed to Spain's top-level National Court, says Assange's lawyers also accuse Ecuador of spying on him. The National Court could not comment when contacted by AFP.
 
That contrasts with Ecuadoran President Lenin Moreno's version of events. In an interview with the Guardian newspaper, he alleged Assange had tried to set up a “centre for spying” in Ecuador's embassy.
   
Last year, Quito cut his internet and mobile phone access, accusing him of breaking “a written commitment” not to interfere in its and allies' foreign policies.
   
The move infuriated Assange, who sued the government for violating his “fundamental rights” by limiting his access to the outside world.
   
Now in prison in Britain, Assange is also fighting a US extradition warrant relating to the release by WikiLeaks of a huge cache of official documents.
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