Julian Assange Asks for Asylum in France, France Rejects His Request | Hacker News Reader

Julian Assange Asks for Asylum in France, France Rejects His Request

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20 pointsghosh18 comments

That's not true https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/616928546875932673

Was it a hoax? Who sent the letter?

Was the response by France genuine or also false?

The reaction of the French president is the right thing. It's not like he would be a political prisoner or something. There is a European arrest warrent against him. In Sweden, he would get a fair trial at a european court. If his case even would go to trial.

I think we need to believe in Europe and that also means that we have to accept european arrest warrents. We can also reasonably believe that all EU member states have acceptable standards when it comes to human rights and fair trial.

Indeed. One must trust that Sweden will not in any way allow him to be extradited: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordinary_rendition#Sweden

(The sentence before the URL was sarcasm by the way).

Yeah, because something the Swedes did to two low profile suspected terrorists 14 years ago and subsequently paid substantial damages for is exactly how they'll treat an expensively-advised public figure in a high profile case. Their desperation to put him on a rendition flight to Guantanamo Bay, even if it means jeopardising their extradition treaties with the EU, is illustrated by the incredible lengths Assange had to go to board a routine passenger flight to leave the country the day after his lawyer had been notified of his impending arrest.

That was also sarcasm, in case you are wondering.

The UK and Germany (amongst others no doubt) have been complicit in Extraordinary Rendition for starters... you can believe in humans rights and fair trial if you like, but that'd be naive.

>In Sweden, he would get a fair trial at a european court. If his case even would go to trial. Then he would be extradited to the U.S. by treaty, where he would be exposed to the horrors of the American Justice System.

FTFY.

FIFY: where he would be exposed to the horrors of the American System.

> In Sweden, he would get a fair trial at a european court

Sure.

I can't believe for one second he thought his request would be granted. And even if it were, he still has no way out of his self-imposed house arrest.

Everything he does is just self-publicity to fuel his ego.

Agree with everything except this one point... it seems a bit odd to refer to his retreat to Ecuador's embassy as "self-imposed house arrest".

Surely he has a genuine and reasonable fear of being extradited to a country that operates an off-shore detention facility that exists outside the law; a country that tortures prisoners.

Surley he fears being convicted of rape more.

If he was worried about the US extradition before the swedes wanted him for rape, why was he hanging around in Europe in the first place?

On CNN a few days back: French minister: It's possible asylum will be offered to Snowden, Assange.

Maybe he should have asked Germany. They seem pretty mad at the U.S. listening in on all their phone calls and hacking their leaders' private communications.

How does that get him out of the UK though?

Yeah, no. His chances would be much better in France. La Grande Nation has at least some pride. The German government could not care less about the US spying on us. They are of course trying their best to please the press but while the US is highly dependent on its German bases they would never do anything substantial to anger the US. And there is no pressure on them to change that: The two big parties form a coalition and while the smaller one (SPD) tries to benefit from the scandal, truth is that their members oversaw the agencies in the last big coalition.

There was a parliamentarian commission, which investigated the Snowden scandal. They tried to interrogate him but not even that was possible let alone asylum for him.

After what WikiLeaks revealed about Khalid El-Masri[1] it would be a poor choice.

"In May 2004, the US Ambassador to Germany, Daniel R. Coats, convinced the German interior minister, Otto Schily, not to press charges or to reveal the program."

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalid_El-Masri

The BND are in bed with the NSA:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-intellige...

It is really sad that a clown like Assange is considered a hero around here. There are much better people, you would be better off picking someone at random.

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