Julian Assange decision by UN panel ridiculous, says Hammond
I&#x27;d appreciate it if someone could make an earnest answer to explain to me how on Earth one could agree with the U.N. panel.<p>As I understand it:<p>Assange has been charged in Sweden with rape, on the basis of an alleged victim&#x27;s complaint. This, I would think, is clearly enough to warrant a criminal investigation and, perhaps, an arrest warrant. I know that some question the veracity of the complaint against him, but that does not change the fact that Sweden has clearly followed its own law in pursuing the complaint, including the arrest warrant. (Remember, there&#x27;s a different standard for arresting someone than convicting them!)<p>On the basis of this arrest warrant, he is now subject to arrest in the U.K. for extradition. Again, this is totally normal.<p>True, there may be questions about whether the Swedish prosecutor could have&#x2F;should have come to the U.K. to question Assange. But the fact of the matter, legally speaking, is that he is subject to legal arrest in Sweden and, therefore, legally subject to arrest in the U.K. regardless of how the prosecutor chooses to pursue the case. The Swedish prosecutor clearly does not legally <i>have</i> to come to the U.K. to interview him. That&#x27;s presumably the whole reason that, under Swedish law (and also, more or less, under U.S. law), one can be arrested for questioning. So that a defendant cannot run out the clock on his or her prosecution by dodging the prosecutor.<p>It is often said that he is doing all this to avoid extradition to the U.S. But: 
a. This is totally speculative, and not a legal basis for avoiding a duly issued arrest warrant in Sweden.
a. That didn&#x27;t stop him from hanging out in Sweden before his rape charge.
b. If he is extradited to the U.S., that too will presumably be in the course of a legal process. There <i>is</i>, after all, a good argument that he committed a U.S. crime.<p>Again, one may question the merits of the prosecution in Sweden, or the hypothetical charge in the U.S., but that doesn&#x27;t make what has happened so far &quot;arbitrary.&quot;