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Convicted killer offers Assange ‘legal advice’

Christine Schürrer, a German woman who was convicted of murdering two children in 2008, has offered to help Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in his legal battles with Sweden by explaining her own troubles with the Swedish legal system.

Convicted killer offers Assange 'legal advice'

Schürrer, 35, has reportedly sent a letter to the Australian embassy in Stockholm offering her expertise. Her own very public trial four years ago followed the deaths of two children in Arboga, central Sweden.

The fact that Assange currently risks extradition to Sweden is something that “scares” Schürrer, according to daily Expressen.

Schürrer received a lifetime sentence in 2008 for killing two Swedish children, Max, 3 and Saga, 1, and the attempted murder of their mother.

“She thinks that she has been mishandled, that the Swedish justice system has not taken into consideration her human rights,” said an acquaintance of Schürrer to the paper.

Schürrer’s letter allegedly reads as a warning to the Australian whistleblower.

“There are gaps in legal security here that are obvious and that threaten law and order,” the letter reads, according to Expressen.

According to the woman’s acquaintance, Schürrer believes that Swedish justice system remains at a “medieval level when it allows innocent people to be convicted”.

In her own trial, the Supreme Court, Sweden’s highest legal authority, chose not to grant her the chance to appeal.

However, Assange’s lawyer Tomas Olsson is reportedly not interested in the developments, and has distanced himself from the news.

“I attach no importance to this, it means nothing. This is something she has done of her own accord,” he told the paper.

Meanwhile, Paul Stephens, the Australian ambassador to Sweden, will not comment on the matter, according to his assistant Therese Ryde.

“I’ve spoken to him and he has no comments” she told the paper.

TT/The Local/og

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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.

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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