Hacker News Reader

Comment by Tloewald | Hacker News Reader

There's a concrete dispute mentioned in the article. Assange says the Swedes can interview him any time in the embassy, the Swedes say they've asked, and been waiting months, for permission. The article blithely quotes these conflicting statements and makes no attempt to find out who is telling the truth or what the details are.

View on HN

I don't think those are quite conflicting. It sounds like Assange says he's happy for the Swedes to do it, but the Swedes are saying they can't get permission from Ecuador.

OTOH we have Assange saying "this Swedish official refused both", which could be conflicting, but it's pretty vague.

Assange is claiming they can talk to him any time and the Swedes are saying they've tried and can't. That's a pretty direct conflict. Either one or the other is being disingenuous at best and outright lying at worst.

> Assange is claiming they can talk to him any time

The closest I can see to this is:

> From the beginning I offered simple solutions. Come to the embassy to take my statement or promise not to send me to the United States.

which doesn't contradict the Swedes saying they've tried and failed. I guess you can argue that it's disingenuous.

If the Swedes have tried and haven't been allowed in then it's disingenuous on Assange's part. If the Swedes haven't really tried, then they're outright lying. Someone is lying, and it would be worth knowing who.

Maybe some Swedish comedian (or Sacha Baron Cohen in a blonde wig with a fake Swedish accent) will rock up to the Ecuadorian embassy, claim to be a Swedish prosecutor and ask to be let in and we'll finally learn the truth.

I read in an article posted here yesterday that the reason for the stalemate is that Ecuador is demanding Sweden make statements to the effect that Assange is in a legal asylum at the embassy. Sweden don't want to get involved in that side of things, they just want to interview him and so have refused that demand.

Ecuador has denied this:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/10/us-sweden-assange-...

> The Ecuadorian embassy also said in its statement that no representative from Sweden has turned up on their steps to interview Assange.

> Karin Rosander, spokeswoman for Swedish Prosecution Authority, said a prosecutor had been to London in June, ready to question the Australian, but lacking necessary permissions, she had to return home without visiting the embassy.

So the prosecutor flew to London but wasn't willing to just take a taxi over to the embassy and knock on the door?

I think the necessary permissions missing were from her supperiors.

That doesn't stick because Sweden has refused to interview him in the UK like Assange asked them to do it before he asked Ecuador for asylum. Instead, at the time, Sweden asked UK for his extradition back to Sweden.

Another reply to my comment has disputed the claim but on a different reason. Sweden is saying they're happy to do the interview now - they weren't previously - in the UK now but can't get permission from Ecuador.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com