The UK government has threatened the sanctity of a diplomatic mission, putting diplomats and asylum seekers everywhere at risk, over someone who is wanted for questioning, with no actual charges yet to have been filed.
That threat in itself is shocking. If they were to go through with it, dictatorships everywhere would instantly ensure every dissident who as much as looks towards a foreign embassy will get slapped with criminal charges so they can use it to justify entering the embassy to pull them out.
> And it's not as if he's being sent to somewhere with a shitty human rights record or a dodgy judicial system. It's Sweden
It's Sweden, the country who has admitted to having handed Egyptian dissidents over to masked CIA agents who proceeded to strip them, drug them, chain them, and ship them off to Mubarak to be tortured, in violation of Swedish law and international treaties.
The European Court of Human Rights didn't help them much.
The kicker?
Said Egyptians were in Sweden seeking political asylum because they presumably believed the same you do.
I completely agree that the UK statements about revoking the embassy's status are dumb on a massive level and they need to back off of that position in a hurry. I think Ecuador are abusing the asylum process but your point about what the UK's actions if they did it mean is completely right.
In terms of the being charged thing, that's a technical distinction based on how the Swedish process works where you have to be formally questioned before you can be charged. As the UK judges at his appeal stated, it's misleading to say that, criminal charges have in effect been bought.
But that still doesn't justify storming the embassy.
I'm not saying that mistakes haven't been made in the past but Assange will, I suspect have far better legal representation and a far better PR apparatus than the Egyptian's had. This is a trial that would be in the glare of the world's media which makes any kind of cover up far, far harder.
Assange has been formally questioned. He was formally questioned back in 2010. Then the prosecutor decided there was no indication of a crime.
It took another prosecutor to take the extremely unusual step of swooping in and reopening the case before it was suddenly imperative he was questioned in Sweden, after he had been given the go-ahead to leave.
Meanwhile the Swedish police are happily interviewing suspected murderers elsewhere without the same insistence.
As for the Egyptians - it caused a massive uproar, then as stated, the US was shown to be right back at it again shortly afterwards, ignoring the political fallout of the initial cases. Even if Sweden doesn't want to be involved in the dirty work - and they have a lengthy history of bending over for the US -, that is by no means any guarantee of anything.
> If they were to go through with it, dictatorships everywhere would instantly ensure every dissident who as much as looks towards a foreign embassy will get slapped with criminal charges so they can use it to justify entering the embassy to pull them out.
Unnecessary for China, against someone whose family was within their grasp. That does not mean it wouldn't be a very convenient tool.
You'll note that China found it less troublesome to threaten someones family with violence than to risk a diplomatic incident by violating the integrity of a diplomatic mission.
Well the US is not exactly a country to get on the wrong side of. It's pretty clear the US never really went to bat for the guy either, not wanting to be on the wrong side of China. Britain and Ecuador have no need to maintain good relations so it's an entirely different kettle of fish.
That threat in itself is shocking. If they were to go through with it, dictatorships everywhere would instantly ensure every dissident who as much as looks towards a foreign embassy will get slapped with criminal charges so they can use it to justify entering the embassy to pull them out.
> And it's not as if he's being sent to somewhere with a shitty human rights record or a dodgy judicial system. It's Sweden
It's Sweden, the country who has admitted to having handed Egyptian dissidents over to masked CIA agents who proceeded to strip them, drug them, chain them, and ship them off to Mubarak to be tortured, in violation of Swedish law and international treaties.
The European Court of Human Rights didn't help them much.
The kicker?
Said Egyptians were in Sweden seeking political asylum because they presumably believed the same you do.