WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been admitted into the hospital ward of Belmarsh following reports by Assange's defense lawyer that a motion to delay a hearing in Sweden next Monday, on the provably fraudulent rape allegations (which this reporter has exposed), has been denied.
Reuters reports:
The Swedish prosecutor heading an investigation into the rape allegation against Assange, which he denies, this month filed a request with a local court for him to be detained with a hearing scheduled for June 3.
Swedish defense lawyer Per Samuelson told Reuters he had visited Assange in British custody on Friday after which he had sought to have the hearing postponed.
Assange's lawyer cited his health conditions as one of the reasons that the hearing should be delayed stating his client was not able to have a normal conversation and, as a result, he hasn't had enough time to get a defense together.
“One of the reasons is that Assange’s health situation on Friday was such that it was not possible to conduct a normal conversation with him,” Samuelson said.
“I meant that it should be postponed until I had time to meet again and go through the issues in peace and quiet. I suggested no specific date and meant it should be postponed until everything was ready, but the district court has now decided that this won’t happen.”
However, despite ongoing health concerns of Assange, the court denied the motion to delay the hearing scheduled for next Monday, in Sweden.
Assange's lawyer also stated in a Swedish news article that his client has been recently admitted to the medical ward of Belmarsh prison. However, there is no further information on the state of Assange's health, or if conditions have worsened since he was taken into prison or if this is from existing health conditions he experienced from the treatment while in the UK embassy.
UPDATE: Here is the full statement released by WikiLeaks detailing the full extent of their concerns about the health of Julian Assange.
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/1133847992656715776
- wikileaks
This denial of extending the hearing past Monday is compounded with originally denying lawyers access to court transcripts of statements to copy, pushing his defense to have to read documents and then remember what was said to write it up by memory. Which, obviously would create a flimsy defense by design.
A former Prosecutor, Ove Nordström Källby, previously notified Prosecutor Marianne Ny (the woman responsible for the preliminary investigation of the allegations) to the police unit for special investigations. In other words, a special prosecutor to be assigned to investigate the Assange case corruption for the rape allegations. While another former prosecutor, Rolf Hillegren said prior that Ny should have been replaced.
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/621708708939235328
- wikileaks
This was because of such behavior as falsely claiming that British and Swedish law prevented her from interrogating Assange anywhere but in Sweden. On November 20th 2010, Ny was quoted saying that Swedish law prevented her from questioning Assange by video link or at an embassy in London. On the 3rd of December, the same year Ny told TIME Magazine that she could not legally interview Assange by telephone or video link.
Two months later on February 4th, 2011, Ny suddenly changed her claims. In a witness statement submitted in the extradition proceedings in London, she admitted that it was possible for her to interview Assange in London within the framework of legal co-operation called Mutual Legal Assistance.
Further, in an opinion piece published in Sweden's largest daily paper, Dagens Nyheter, two Swedish journalists claimed that Marianne Ny had privately stated she would not change her position on Assange even if she were wrong. WikiLeaks highlighted this alleged statement in a tweet in August 2012.
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/238788112665423873
- wikileaks
In 2012, the UK Supreme Court acknowledged that Assange was not charged in Sweden. The prosecutor further acknowledged in correspondence with UK authorities that the matter is a 'preliminary investigation', and that no decision had been made to charge. Sweden attempted to drop the investigation in 2013, but was told not to by the UK CPS, which also discouraged Sweden from interrogating Assange in the UK despite it being routine for Sweden and standard practice throughout the EU. The CPS destroyed key emails relating to Assange’s Swedish extradition, an investigation by Stefania Maurizi showed according to Justice4Assange, a website created for accurate information in the defense of Julian Assange ran by Hanna Jonasson.
Assange has never been formally charged in the investigation with rape despite mainstream media reports libeling and defaming him by pushing a biased narrative that Assange is a "rapist." Biased because the establishment ignores evidence that exonerates him, as WikiLeaks has pointed out in past tweets.
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/806480898447278080
- wikileaks
It's further worth noting that Sweden broke the law by illegally releasing Assange's name before issuing a formal charge according to former chief prosecutor Sven Erik Alhem.
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/686619751469178886
- wikileaks
Assange's accuser, Anna Ardin, once told the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet in 2010 that the complaints were “not orchestrated by the Pentagon,” as some Assange supporters had claimed, but were the result of actions by “a man who has a twisted attitude toward women and a problem taking no for an answer.”
However, the texts depict a whole different story where Anna Ardin is bragging about sexual relations with Assange to a friend.
Ironically enough, past research indicates that the Swedish Court of Appeals originally refused to force the prosecutor to hand over SMS messages as WikiLeaks documents on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/535422210090213376
- wikileaks
Sweden reopened the highly flawed rape investigation despite a plethora of evidence suggesting sexual relations were consensual including the text messages that WikiLeaks posted. The investigation was started in 2010 and later dropped in 2017 years after Assange took refuge in Ecuador’s London embassy to protect himself against extradition to the U.S. The texts show that its less about sexual assault and more of a love triangle situation of jealousy between the women as Antiwar.com documented in 2010.
As Antiwar further reports:
Here is where the story gets murky: for some reason not readily apparent to me, Sophia Wilen called Anna, and the two got to talking: the former confided she had been sleeping with Assange.
Antiwar reported at the time Assange was invited by then Swedish embassy intern Anna Ardin (who served in Buenos Aires, and Havana,) to an event by the “Brotherhood,” a Christian faction of Sweden’s Social Democratic party for which Ardin was the press secretary. Assange was also invited to stay at her house a mistake in the making since this was the same woman who wrote a blog post “Seven Steps to Legal Revenge.”
Antiwar notes that Ardin was "reportedly asked to leave Cuba after her interactions with Cuban exile groups was linked to the CIA -- a fact the mainstream press has mainly failed to report to the general public about the “rape” allegations. Ardin, was found to have curious connections to the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) through the “Las Damas de Blanco” (the Ladies in White), an anti-Castro group. Professor Michael Seltzer pointed out that the group is led by Carlos Alberto Montaner who is reportedly connected to the CIA. (LA Republica)
Further, Las Damas de Blanco is partially funded by the US government and CIA Agent Luis Posada Carriles, who is an avid supporter. A declassified 1976 document (.pdf) revealed Carriles to be a CIA agent as well as a convicted terrorist responsible for terrorist attacks that killed hundreds of people.
After Ardin’s curious ties to a CIA asset group were disclosed she seemingly stopped cooperating with Swedish authorities and suddenly took a trip to Palestine, to “volunteer with a Christian group working to reconcile Arabs and Israelis,” Australian news site Crikey.com reported.
If that’s not enough, the condom that Ardin alleged was “torn during sex” and handed to the police to back her allegations has neither Assange’s nor her own DNA on it, Herald Sun reported.
The second woman who accused Assange of rape, Sofia Wilen, was proven coerced into telling her story by Ardin according to Assange’s testimony which included text messages against the rape allegations that WikiLeaks tweeted in 2016.
Ardin wrote to Wilen that “it was important for her to go forward with her story.” Ardin also later told Wilen that they could sell their stories to a newspaper for money.
There’s just one problem: Wilen admitted while at the police station that she didn’t want to put charges on Julian Assange, and she “just wanted him to take a test.” Wilen later wrote that the charges being pushed on Assange were created and made up by the police according to the text messages.
There is also a third woman, according to Euronews and The Intercept, who stated that the woman has thus far been "unidentified." At this point, given the two other cases being manipulated and fraudulent, it would not be surprising if this were another set up against Assange like the infamous Todd And Claire garage-run operation calling Assange a pedophile in the 2016 election. The woman's lawyer Elisabeth Massi Fritz, said that her client welcomed re-opening the investigation.
https://twitter.com/euronews/status/1127933040762740736
- euronews
https://twitter.com/ChrChristensen/status/1127905035483062272
- ChrChristensen
As Peter Tatchell, Director of the human rights organization “The Peter Tatchell Foundation” pointed out in his recent article, Assange has “always maintained his innocence and from the outset offered to cooperate with the Swedish prosecutors.”
In August 2010, when the rape claims were first made, Assange voluntarily remained in Sweden and presented himself to the police. After assessing the evidence, the chief prosecutor said “no crime” had been committed and that the file would be “closed.”
The case against Assange was reopened a month later by a different local prosecutor. From 8 to 14 September, Assange repeatedly offered to be questioned but no interview was arranged. The prosecutor advised Assange on 15 September that he was free to leave Sweden, which he did.
Two weeks later, on 30 September, the prosecutor announced that an arrest warrant had been issued to require Assange to present himself for questioning in Sweden. Assange offered to return to Sweden in the week commencing 11 October but was told those dates were not appropriate.
The shadow CIA firm, Stratfor, also admitted knowing (through personal contacts) that the Swedish ‘rape’ accusation against Assange was false, according to leaked emails in the GIFiles discussing the WikiLeaks situation.
Stratfor employee Chris Farnham wrote:
“Is it possible to revoke some one’s citizenship on the grounds of them being a total dickhead?
I don’t care about the other leaks but the ones he has made that potentially damage Australian interests upset me.
If I thought I could switch this dickhead off without getting done I don’t think I’d have too much of a problem.
BTW, close family friend in Sweden who knows the girl that is pressing charges tells me that there is absolutely nothing behind it other than prosecutors that are looking to make a name for themselves. My friend speaks rather disparagingly about the girl who is claiming molestation.
I also think the whole rape thing is incorrect for if I remember correctly rape was never the charge.”
The same Stratfor email thread shows that even they are aware that WikiLeaks is a publisher and that right is protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, despite hating Assange and WikiLeaks personnel.
I am not going to stand by the claim that “But that is BS, these documents were stolen and published illegally.” Fine. So put the people who stole them in jail. But what do you mean “published illegally.”? There is very little out there that constitutes “illegal publication”. Publishing stolen documents is actually not illegal. It is their theft in the first place that is illegal. But publishing them is protected by the First Amendment, which I think is more important than both the secrets themselves or this douchebag’s rights. Lots of good has come out of leaks (thus my comment about the Pentagon Papers). That doesn’t mean one should encourage the leaks, but you can’t prosecute someone just for leaking them. Think about what would happen next time someone leaks something to the press? We need that room to maneuver. It is necessary in a democracy.
So anyways, I am not so worried about the “leaking” part. That has happened before and will happen again. Hell, even the idea of Wikileaks is a good one. Whistelblowers can go to this site and feel safe to reveal things people should know about… such as if a Chinese company is using fake milk or if some farmer is leaking mercury into a stream. There have actually been cases like that leaked to Wikileaks… so it is not all this secret supposedly spy stuff.
The problem, however, is that this idiot is so anti-American and is on a mission to build a pyramid to his own ego. That is the real issue here. His ego and anti-Americanism. And I think we need to remove him — one wayor another — before that drive leads him to publishing something trulydamaging, putting U.S. government employees in danger.
But the act of publishing leaked information has been the bedrock of American investigative journalism. You can’t fault the concept because he is a douche. And you can’t go against our own First Amendment because he is a douche,” Marko Papic writes.
So we have both cases of rape entirely debunked and fabricated according to evidence, and a Stratfor employee admitting its fake and that wasn’t the context of the investigation.
WikiLeaks points to Justice 4 Assange for accurate up to date information on the Swedish rape preliminary investigation.
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/1127875876845232128
- wikileaks
Similarly, WikiLeaks points out that its founder has also had corruption from Ecuadorian courts and the government alike noting they spied on his legal, medical visits, stole legal notes during the middle of a court hearing against them, secretly cooperated with U.S. prosecutors and tried to extort money upwards to 3 million Euro.
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/1115979363026198528
- wikileaks
That's two different courts to this writer's knowledge -- although there may be more -- where WikiLeaks experienced corruption demonstrating that the justice system is a mere illusion against high-profile political cases.
Assange was arrested in London last month after spending seven years inside the embassy despite two UN rulings that urged his freedom.
Assange also faces extradition to the United States for 17 charges under the Espionage Act of which was revealed last week. In total Assange faces 18 charges including a charge under the CFAA for computer hacking by helping his source Chelsea Manning protect herself against being discovered, as Activist Post previously reported.
If the court order is granted, this would be the first step to have Assange extradited from Britain to the U.S. or Sweden, where he is serving a 50-week sentence in the UK's Guantanamo Bay for "skipping bail."
The warrant issued in question arose 12 days after Julian entered the Ecuador Embassy seeking asylum from U.S. threats against his life and liberty. So that warrant should never have been issued in the first place, as Asylum/international law overrides domestic (UK) law.
Instead, the allegations should have been dropped after Sweden dropped its preliminary investigation and Julian wasn’t charged as the warrant was attached to the European Arrest Warrant on that case.
Despite this fact, Assange was charged with "skipping bail" and ordered to face 50 weeks in Belmarsh.
Ultimately that decision lies in the hands of the next incoming UK home secretary who will decide which one takes precedence, according to Reuters.
Assange now faces a “nightmarish future,” which in the short term for 50 weeks will be spent in Britain’s Guantanamo Bay – Belmarsh prison, as Elizabeth Vos expresses in an article written for Consortium News.
“The reputation of HM Prison Belmarsh raises natural concerns about the wellbeing of the WikiLeaks publisher there.” It’s worth noting as Vos detailed that the last time Assange was in a British prison he had an extra ingredient of metal added to his food.
Elizabeth Vos reports:
The last time Assange was held in a British prison, in 2010, he says that he was given food containing metal objects that severely damaged a tooth. This was at London’s HM Prison Wandsworth. The incident caused serious injury and he did not receive proper medical treatment during the six and a half years of his confinement in the Ecuadorian embassy. A medical report published by WikiLeaks in 2015 describes Assange’s version of the event.
In November of last year, Christine Assange used grassroots movement Unity4J to urge officials to allow access to medical attention for her son, and for the UK and Ecuador to end Assange’s illegal arbitrary detainment (2 years of virtual house arrest, 7th year confined inside the Ecuadorian embassy) without charge as determined by two UN rulings.
For the past at least 6 years in the embassy, the UK government has refused Assange’s request for access to basic health needs: fresh air, exercise, sunshine for vitamin D and access to proper medical and dental care according to Christine Assange and Julian Assange’s lawyer, Greg Barns.
As a result, his health has seriously deteriorated; and his examining doctors warn these detention conditions are life-threatening.
“The slow and cruel assassination is taking place before our very eyes in the embassy in London,” Christine expressed.
Assange’s doctor, Sean Love, has previously stated in an opinion piece that depriving him of medical care is “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.” Adding, “It is time for Australia to intervene.”
Other doctors who examined Assange, Sondra Crosby, an associate professor at Boston University’s school of medicine and public health, and Brock Chisholm, a clinical psychologist in London have stated much the same.
All three called on safe passage for Assange to a hospital in an article for the Guardian, they wrote:
While the results of the evaluation are protected by doctor-patient confidentiality, it is our professional opinion that his continued confinement is dangerous physically and mentally to him and a clear infringement of his human right to healthcare.
Assange has had a persistent chronic lung condition for several years, and his 'frozen shoulder' issues were talked about as having possible implications of a heart condition. So Assange has a list of health problems, from being prevented sunlight and exercise while he was holed up in the embassy. Although, it's not known why he was taken to Belmarsh's prison medical ward. He should immediately be taken to a hospital where full care can be administered instead of limited care inside a prison ward.
The above health concerns are coupled with surveillance technology that was a requirement for Assange to remain in the embassy, including signal jammers and all of the additional technology that is emitting various electromagnetic waves.
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/1058467478026764288
- wikileaks
Assange was examined by doctors shortly before he was dragged out, violating international law in December as part as Ecuador's agreement to stay in the embassy. The doctors at the time did not make public Assange's health issues.
In an April 8th letter just shortly before Assange's arrest that was sent to both U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet and Dunja Mijatovic, the commissioner for human rights for the Council of Europe, Crosby wrote that Assange had “multiple medical conditions” that had become “more complex and urgent” over the past two years she had examined him, Vice reported.
During seven years of illegal confinement akin to a prison, Assange had suffered “a number of serious deleterious effects of sunlight deprivation,” Crosby wrote, including “neuropsychological impairment, weakened bones, decreased immune function, and increased risk for cardiovascular disease and cancer.” He also displayed physical and psychological symptoms as a result of “prolonged social isolation and sensory deprivation.”
“I believe the psychological, physical, and social [aftereffects] will be long-lasting and severe,” Crosby expressed.
She added that the “cumulative severity of the pain and suffering inflicted on Mr. Assange—both physical and psychological—is in violation of the 1984 Convention Against Torture."
As a long-time friend of this writer, journalist and Internet Party NZ President Suzie Dawson previously posed the question in her “Being Julian Assange” mega-article on Assange’s situation and WikiLeaks’ history, “we need to ask ourselves whether we are we watching Assange die before our very eyes?”
Assange faces a separate hearing on extradition to the U.S. May 30th, tomorrow. However, it's expected that this process will drag on for months and more likely years to come according to Assange's lawyer Samuelsson. Samuelsson expressed that Assange will remain detained until the United States' request is tried in the UK court.
The U.S. has till June 14th to bring all charges. So there may still be pending charges the U.S. has not yet revealed.
Assange's Swedish lawyer says regardless Sweden is going ahead with its own court hearing before the arrest warrant and underlying evidence has been translated into a language that his client can understand -- a legal right in both Swedish and UK law apparently being overridden, making it very clear that this is a political case against Julian Assange.
Grassroots movement Unity4J will be holding solidarity vigils for Julian Assange every Friday from 4 p.m. – 7 p.m EST. Citizens interested in all views of the current case or present erosion of liberties can view the broadcast on YouTube or Periscope.
Assange has called on WikiLeaks supporters to "save his life" in a recently published letter that was sent to journalist Gordon Dimmack.
An organized up-to-date list of known street actions can be found on Unity4J’s Pinterest account which will be kept promptly up to date by volunteers. While there is a planned protest by Wise Up Action outside Westminster Magistrates Court starting at 9 a.m. on May 30th.
https://twitter.com/greekemmy/status/1131691480408629248
- greekemmy
To truly understand the mark Julian Assange and the WikiLeaks team has made on the world, watch this heart-wrenching video of Nobel Peace Prize Winner Mairead Maguire speaking on the imprisonment of her longtime friend Julian Assange during her acceptance speech for the GUE/NGL journalism award in his honor.
Supporters are asked to donate to the numerous defenses for WikiLeaks by visiting this link or purchasing merchandise from the WikiLeaks Shop, which goes towards Assange and other WikiLeaks volunteers’ defenses and future releases.
https://twitter.com/couragefound/status/1131662857094008832
- couragefound
For up-to-date accurate information on Julian Assange’s plight, see @Wikileaks, @AssangeMrs, and @Unity4J and Assange’s lawyers Twitter accounts far too many to list, most notably the editor of Justice4Assange — @AssangeLegal. The website Unity4J will be up to date with information, live streams, and the Pinterest account will detail places where protests will be held in support of Julian Assange.
Aaron Kesel writes for Activist Post. Support us at Patreon. Follow us on Minds, Steemit, SoMee, BitChute, Facebook and Twitter. Ready for solutions? Subscribe to our premium newsletter Counter Markets.
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