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British judge ratified arrest warrant against Assange
Posted On 14 Feb 2018
Ecuadornews:
Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot rejected the appeal of the founder of WikiLeaks. The defense lawyers insist that the measure is “arbitrary, unreasonable and disproportionate.”
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will continue to face a possible arrest if he leaves the Ecuadorian embassy in London, after the British justice confirmed the international arrest warrant against him. Judge Emma Arbuthnot rejected the arguments of the defense, according to which it was no longer in the public interest to keep the order in force, effective since Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in 2012.
Defense lawyers argued before the court that the measure is “Arbitrary, unreasonable and disproportionate”. The Westminster Magistrates Court last week backed the police to arrest Assange if he leaves the diplomatic legation.
The founder of WikiLeaks, 46, was asylum in June 2012 at the embassy of Ecuador, located in the neighborhood of Knightsbridge, to avoid an extradition to Sweden where he was accused since late 2010 of rape and sexual assaults that he denies having task.
Assange, who received Ecuadorian nationality in December, fears that if detained he will be extradited and tried in the United States for the 2010 disclosure of WikiLeaks files, which contained thousands of military secrets and US diplomatic documents.
The Swedish Prosecutor’s Office shelved the investigation in May 2017, but last week Judge Emma Arbuthnot decided that the detention order was still valid from a legal point of view, because that decision was issued after Julian Assange, according to the British magistrate, violated the conditions of his bond.
“The defendants on parole throughout the country, as well as the people facing extradition, appear before the courts to face the consequences of their own decisions,” the judge argued. He added that he should have “the courage to do the same,” after considering that the decision “certainly does not go against the public interest” to keep the arrest warrant.
Attorney Gareth Peirce, part of Assange’s legal team, told the media at the end of the court that they have not yet decided if they will appeal the decision to higher courts. In his Twitter account, Assange stressed that theoretically he “already purged more than three times the maximum penalty” for evading justice.
He also referred to a note in The Guardian on Monday that he alleged, citing emails from the British Prosecutor’s Office, that he had dissuaded Sweden from dismissing the accusation against him.
Hoping to reach a solution to the legal and diplomatic situation, Ecuadorian nationality granted WikiLeaks founder, with the idea that immunity would allow him to leave the legation. But the United Kingdom refused to grant him a diplomatic status that would have allowed him to leave that embassy without being stopped by the British Police.
Since then, Assange has made few public appearances on the balcony of the embassy where he lives since June 2012 in a narrow apartment. In the United States has been accused of giving information to Russia, due to an alleged influence on the election of Republican Donald Trump in the White House. In July 2016, WikiLeaks published 20,000 emails Democratic Party, among whom there were some, at the discretion of his accusers, which affected the campaign of then candidate Hillary Clinton.
The Embassy
Embassy in London
On Tuesday, June 19, 2012, Julian Assange took refuge in the Embassy of Ecuador in London and applied for political asylum. After almost two months, on August 15, 2012 the National Government gave way to the request of the Australian citizen.
6 years will be served, next June, Julian Assange within the diplomatic legation.
Search for solution
The Government, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has indicated that it will continue to seek a satisfactory solution for the parties. (I)
