Re: Caity Johnstone - 21 thoughts on Assange Archived Message
Posted by dovetailjoint on April 5, 2019, 6:45 am, in reply to "Caity Johnstone - 21 thoughts on Assange"
All isn't lost even if Assange is expelled from the embassy and arrested by the police. It's then that the legal 'fun' will really start. He won't be immediately handed over to the Americans. It took years of legal battles in the attempt to extradite him to Sweden. It's highly unlikely that the US authorities will face an easier task. Also the British have to tread carefully as they can't be seen to be 'vindictive' in relation to Assnage in the 'jumping bail' case. They have to be seen to be 'just' otherwise public opinion, which is slumbering, could turn very quickly indeed. What punishment can he expect? Probably, in normal circumstances, a fine, or perhaps a short prison sentence. Though as he 'jumped bail' for a crime h was never charged with, even this is problematic for the state. He's probably safer and better off in a UK prison than in the embassy, on balance. Assange's story that he's being persecuted on political grounds for telling the truth about American warcrimes, that he's really a political prisoner, has been obscured by this whole Swedish thing and the imprisonment in the embassy. In fact our media could deny all of it and pretend Assange was just an ordinary criminal on the run, holed up in the embassy. This state-sponsered narrative, a massive lie, is going to be impossible to maintain if Assange is treated like a political prisoner by the British and the Americans immediately try to grab him and drag him out of the UK without due process, which'll provr that Assange's story was true all along. It's going to be very difficult for the British courts to just hand over Assange to Trump's Washington, without due process and an examination of the case, the evidence, against him. It could take years. If the invoke the 'national security' argument for holding the hearings in camera, this'll only make things worse and reveal what's really going on. Even the disgusting Guardian is gonna have problems spinning a transparently political proceeding against Assange, though they will try. At least he won't die in the embassy. The case will be out in the open once more and he's got more than a fighting chance of walking free.
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