News Release

Questions About Sweden’s Actions in Assange Case

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JONATHAN SCHWARZ, jonathan at michaelmoore.comtinyrevolution.com
Schwarz is a researcher and producer for Michael Moore’s Dog Eat Dog Films. Michael Moore and Oliver Stone write in their Tuesday New York Times op-ed, “WikiLeaks and Free Speech,” that: “Mr. Assange has also committed to traveling to Sweden immediately if the Swedish government pledges that it will not extradite him to the United States. Swedish officials have shown no interest in exploring this proposal, and Foreign Minister Carl Bildt recently told a legal adviser to Mr. Assange and WikiLeaks unequivocally that Sweden would not make such a pledge.”

JENNIFER ROBINSON, [6 hours ahead of U.S. ET], jkr.robinson at googlemail.com, @suigenerisjen
Robinson is a longtime member of the WikiLeaks legal team as well as a human rights lawyer and director of legal advocacy at Bertha Philanthropies Media.

She is the legal adviser referenced who the Swedish foreign minister refused to give assurances to. The Swedish newspaper Expressen covered Robinson’s conversation[PDF of Swedish original, p. 10].

She said today: “As Moore and Stone write, based on the behavior of the Swedish and U.K. governments it’s difficult to come to any conclusion other than that their objective is not to see justice served regarding the allegation against Mr. Assange, but to get him to Sweden by any means necessary so that he may be extradited onwards to the U.S. to face prosecution for his activities with WikiLeaks.”

ROBERT NAIMAN, naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
Naiman is policy director of Just Foreign Policy. The group organized and delivered this appeal signed by prominent Americans urging Ecuador to accept Julian Assange’s asylum request in late June.

Naiman said today: “Until now, major media have allowed U.S., British and Swedish officials to get away with claiming that the British/Swedish legal case against Assange has nothing to do with the prospect of a U.S. prosecution of Assange under the Espionage Act for publishing leaked U.S. documents.

“Ecuador’s decision to grant Assange asylum, recently-disclosed Australian government documents stating that the U.S. investigation into Assange has been ongoing, and Michael Moore and Oliver Stone’s op-ed in the New York Times give media an opportunity to revisit four basic questions: why won’t Sweden agree to question Assange in the U.K.? Why won’t Sweden promise not to extradite Assange to the United States if he voluntarily goes to Sweden? Why won’t Britain promise not to agree to any U.S. extradition request from Sweden to the U.S., as they are legally entitled to do? Why won’t the U.S. promise not to seek Assange’s extradition from Sweden to the U.S.? The fact that these four questions have yet to be answered severely undermines the claim that there is no relationship between the British/Swedish legal case against Assange and the prospect of U.S. prosecution.”