14 July 2024 - Liptovský Michal Nils Melzer wrote this book about Julian Assange from his perspective as special rapporteur on torture for the UN. Assange's case is a travesty of justice for the sole purpose of silencing a critic of the US and other governments. Before Sweden was in NATO they colluded with the US to extraordinarily render without trial to black sites, and the Swedes were specifically sanctioned and had to provide compensation to Mohammed al-Zari and Ahmed Agiza for this crime. Thus when Assange was under investigation for rape in Sweden the plan was never to charge him. He stayed in Sweden a full extra month to make himself available for police questioning. Then in England he offered to return for more questioning if Sweden would guarantee not to send him on to the US. The Swedes refused and said that it was ridiculous because the US hadn't charged Assange. Then they put out a warrant for his extradition, still without charging him with a crime. Assange surrendered to the British police and fought the extradition while out on bail. Assange was not presented with a chance to defend himself against the rape allegations because he was never charged. Nevertheless he was still painted as a fugitive rapist in the press in order to hide the real crimes of the governments Wikileaks exposed. Rather than submit to Swedish custody and extradition onto the US to disappear into solitary confinement like Bradley Manning, Assange received asylum from a friendly Ecuadorian government in their London embassy. Little did he know that would be his prison for the next decade. The British meanwhile convicted him of violating bail and sentenced him. Nevermind that Parliament meanwhile had passed a law refusing extradition if the person is not charged with a crime. The law specifically did not apply retroactively though, which affected exactly one person, Julian Assange. When the government changed in Quito, Assange was no longer welcome at the embassy and his life there was then made quite difficult. The Ecuadorians started spreading stories that he was crazy and mistreating the staff there, while in fact the opposite was true. They took away his razor and his bathing privileges two weeks before they let the British in to arrest him so that he would look the part of a crazy man. Then began Assange's 4 year solitary confinement at Belmarsh. At this point Melzer became involved and realized that the propaganda spun around Assange to discredit him and Wikileaks had fooled him as well. The US government also started throwing charges at Assange and asking for his extradition. Apparently Assange was not crazy for thinking that this was their plan all along. Meanwhile the Swedes were still "investigating" Assange so they wanted him too. When they finally closed the investigation without bringing charges just before the statute of limitations was up, it became much harder for the "fugitive rapist" label to stick. The US of course got what they wanted - Assange in solitary confinement as years of trials and appeals regarding the extradition. At one point in this farce Assange was released and then immediately re-arrested on new US charges. Melzer quite correctly used his position to highlight the torture of Assange including writing a book. However, eventually Assange caved to his torturers and entered a plea deal that weakens the rights of journalists worldwide. It's worth noting that the administrations of Obama, Trump, and Biden all pursued him with equal vigor. For the time being Assange is a free man in Australia, but we'll see how long that lasts... ![]() |
Last changed on 19 July 2024 by Bradley James Wogsland.
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