The WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange who unveiled hundreds of US secret documents has recently again surprised everyone. Mr. Assange announced his decision to leave the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where he has been hiding for two years to avoid extradition to Sweden on rape allegations.
Studio guest Thomas Heine, observer of Politiken daily and prominent author from Copenhagen, Denmark, Roslyn Fuller, a Research Associate with INSYTE (Interdisciplinary Group on Law and Technology) and author of Ireland's leading textbook on International Law, and Andrei Soldatov, a Moscow-based investigative journalist, editior-in-chief Agentura.ru web-site, shared their opinions with Radio VR.
Thomas Heine: I think it is very possible for him to leave. I mean, he can leave any day. But he is wanted for interrogation in Sweden in connection with the rape case. And it is a rape case. It is my firm belief that this is not a political case. It is not a question of Sweden wanting to extradite him to the US. It is a question of wanting him for interrogation.
And what we see from the evidence, it is fairly weak and it will be very likely that if he is extradited to Sweden, he would have this interrogation and they will say –well, we don’t have any basis to charge you, you are free to go back to London or where you want to stay.
I think that he, probably, should stay away from America. I think he would face many years in prison if he goes there. But the Swedish court system is fiercely independent. The accusations are quite flimsy but the prosecutors in Sweden cannot put away this case without having interrogated him. And the police and the interrogators have not been able to prosecute him, because he hides away in the embassy in London.
How the media world has changed after Assange’s leaks?
Thomas Heine: I think WikiLeaks, part of it was fantastic. The part where they collaborated with the prominent Western media – the NY Times, The Guardian and several other newspapers – and where this information was put out to the public. I think this was a great service to the society. The other part where a raw material was put out, maybe less so, because put a lot of people in danger around the world.
So, I think he has contributed to our level of understanding of what is happening in the world. I think we should be grateful for that. I think what we’ve seen in the past two years of him being in the embassy in London, it has diminished his status and could be seen more of a PR stunt than him actually being persecuted.
Why do you think he’s made this decision?
Roslyn Fuller: It is kind of unclear if he has made that decision. He said a few days ago that he might be leaving soon and we haven't really heard anything further about that since. I think some people were citing a change to the Britain’s extradition laws.
It is possible that they thought that would apply to his case. However, of course, changes to extradition laws don’t work retroactively. He hasn’t been formally charged yet, however, in this case I think that was maybe a misunderstanding of the laws, because laws don’t change retroactively.
Britain’s decision to opt out of the European Arrest Warrant System under which Sweden sought his extradition, can you explain it?
Roslyn Fuller: Britain said that they don’t want to extradite anyone who hasn’t been actually charged. With this change to the law they would extradite people only if they have been charged, and this doesn’t apply to Assange. But the problem is that his case happened before this change in the law, so it can’t apply to it.
So, if Julian Assange walks out of the embassy, will he be arrested?
Roslyn Fuller: At this point yes, I would say so. And at this point, it has kind of developed into a standoff. Ecuador, like most Latin American countries, recognizes diplomatic asylum, but the Western countries don’t recognize it. So, the only reason that they haven't gone into the embassy at this point to get Assange out, is because they recognize the inviolability of the embassy ground. But they don’t knowledge that he would have the right to leave Britain and go to Ecuador. That’s the point of dispute.
So, unless there is something going on behind the scenes and they reached an agreement on that point, that the rest of us don’t know about yet, which is possible but I personally would be surprised and I think a lot of people would be surprised, then I don’t see how that would work. The US, Sweden and the UK are saying that, no, there is no reason to believe that Assange would be extradited to the US. That being said, Ecuador has said that they have never received those guarantees that he wouldn’t be extradited to the US for eventually some trial in relation to the WikiLeaks.
So, it really comes down to whether or not you believe that he wouldn’t be extradited to the US and Assange doesn’t seem willing to trust to that belief.
What has Assange done to the new media and to the way that we receive information?
Andrei Soldatov: What we are dealing with now is that people in many countries, including Russia, feel they cannot trust traditional journalists. They think that mainstream media is corrupt and that you can’t expect form them to say things honestly. And they turn to digital journalists and they expect form them investigative reporting. Sometimes it might produce some good results, but not necessarily in all the cases.
