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    New article: Not true that Swedish govt doesn't interfere in the justice system Archived Message

    Posted by margo on August 2, 2019, 4:44 pm, in reply to "US Judge completely wipes out 'case' against Julian Assange"

    Not true that Swedish govt doesn't interfere in the justice system
    Professor Marcello Ferrada de Noli

    The Indicter -- WHEN the U.S. President Donald Trump asked Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Löfven to “treat Americans fairly” –alluding to the situation of [US rap artist] ASAP Rocky– the reply of the Swedish PM produced these two remarkable statements:
    “In Sweden everyone is equal before the law,” and “The Government is not allowed, and will not attempt, to influence the legal proceedings, which are now ongoing.”

    In the above Swedish statements, “is” it has instead be read as “should”.

    For, as we will see below, those statements do not correspond to the reality of the Swedish legal system.

    Neither to the the active role of government – inclusive via directly interfering exercised by a Swedish prime minister – in trying to favour a certain political or ideological course in a current legal case.

    The collective response of Sweden’s political elites and media in this case, might be better understood in the bias adopted against Mr Donald Trump even before he was elected, and in the strong commitment of those elites to the geopolitical model offered by his opponent in that election, Ms Hillary Clinton.

    One example is the factual interference by PM Stefan Löfven in the U.S. election process around his visit to the U.S., when, according to Svenska Dagbladet, “he added that the risk that Trump may become U.S. president made him worried, and that he hoped for the victory of the Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton”.

    “I mean that the best for the U.S. and the world is if Hillary Clinton become president”, said Sweden’s PM Stefan Löfven in the middle of the U.S. presidential campaign. Which Löfven repeated immediately after it was know that Trump has been elected.

    Although those matters never caught the attention in the U.S., those officials positions have certainly contributed – in a country characterized by strong geopolitical consensus and low questioning endeavour by the press – to Trump being considered “uniquely unpopular in Sweden“.

    At least according to a poll commissioned by Swedish Radio, and where this State-owned broadcast concluded that “Eighty per cent of Swedes dislike US president Donald Trump”.

    Furthermore, the Swedish Russophobic politician Carl Bildt – using the medial opportunity given by the ASAP Rocky case to remind via a Washington Post’s heading “I was Sweden’s prime minister and no, Mr. Trump, I could not have freed A$AP Rocky either”– develops:

    “There certainly are countries around the world where the judiciary is little more than an instrument of the arbitrary powers of the ruling strongman, and where the political leadership can send people in and out of prison at their discretion. Sweden is most certainly not one of those countries.”

    But about “political leaderships send people in and out of prison at their discretion”, Carl Bildt should be reminded that he was the Swedish minister of Foreign Affairs at the time United Nations condemned Sweden for have violated the global torture ban in its involvement in the CIA extraordinary renditions of refugees first held prisoners in Sweden.

    That was the case of the secret cooperation of the Swedish authorities in the U.S. transfer of Mohammed al-Zari to be tortured in Egypt –totally precluding the legal system of Sweden.

    And it was the same Carl Bildt who was minister of Foreign Affairs at the time the U.S. government asked all countries participating –under U.S. command– in the military occupation of Afghanistan, to prosecute Julian Assange. As known, only Sweden complied.

    The above facts emphatically deny the pompous, as well as deceptive, Swedish declarations of “non-interference” in matters that belong to the legal system.


    It is not true that Swedish Prime Ministers or others at government don’t interfere on the Sweden’s justice system

    Here below some examples on how these Swedish governmental authorities interfered in the legal case against Julian Assange

    On 11 February 2011, Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt stated in the newspaper DN (and Aftonbladet) that Julian Assange had been indicted.

    He then went on to take a position that was biased in favour of the complainants in the case.

    Not only was this political interference in an ongoing case, but also it was based on untruths; Julian Assange has not been charged. The statement by the Prime Minister was:

    “We have an independent judiciary which also in this case acted according to Swedish law. One has even public-indicted Julian Assange on allegations of rape”. And, “I can only regret that the rights and position of women weigh so lightly when it comes to this type of questions compared to other types of theories brought forward.”

    On 15 August 2012, Göran Haglund, Swedish Minister of Social Affairs, told newspaper Expressen: “Assange is a very coward person that does not dare to confront the charges against him”. And he added, “If he did the things he is accused of, I think one can call him a lowlife. He seems to be a miserable wretch.”

    Besides, the arresting in Sweden of the Grammy-nominated American artist ASAP Rocky has made once again relevant at the international forum two other Swedish idiosyncratic features:

    a) The selective unfairness in the Swedish legal system on ideological and/or ethic grounds [already commented in the post “Does Swedish justice depend on who stands accused?”, and

    b) The extreme-nationalistic consensus in matters of foreign policy. I have previously commented these issues [See chapter “Analyzing The Swedish Phenomenon Of Political Consensus”, page78 in my book Sweden VS. Assange. Free download].



    LINK https://theindicter.com/asap-rocky-case-not-true-that-swedish-prime-ministers-or-others-at-government-dont-interfere-on-the-justice-system/

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