WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange lost his appeal against extradition to Sweden to answer sex crime allegations, but said Wednesday he will now consider whether to take his protracted fight to Britain's highest court.
High Court appeal Judges John Thomas and Duncan Ousely rejected Mr. Assange's claims that it would be unfair and unlawful to send him to Scandinavia to be questioned over the alleged rape of one woman and the molestation of another in Stockholm last year.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange lost his appeal against extradition to Sweden to answer sex crime allegations, but said Wednesday he will now consider whether to take his protracted fight to Britain's highest court.
High Court appeal Judges John Thomas and Duncan Ousely rejected Mr. Assange's claims that it would be unfair and unlawful to send him to Scandinavia to be questioned over the alleged rape of one woman and the molestation of another in Stockholm last year.
The 40-year-old has denied wrongdoing, and insists the case is politically motivated by those opposed to the work of his secret-spilling organization.
“We will be considering our next steps in the days ahead,” Mr. Assange said outside the court. He did not seem angry or visibly upset despite the substantial legal setback.
Lawyer Mark Summers confirmed that it was not yet clear whether his client would attempt an appeal to Britain's Supreme Court. His legal team has 14 days to decide whether to apply to the High Court, and then must try to persuade judges that there is a point of law to justify an appeal to the highest court.
It means Mr. Assange will remain in Britain for at least several more weeks, and could potentially extend his fight against extradition into next year. In a hearing, the appeal judges confirmed that Mr. Assange would remain on bail, held under virtual house arrest at a friend's country estate in southern England.
Legal experts insisted the odds were now stacked against Mr. Assange avoiding extradition to Sweden.
“I think it's highly likely that he'll be in Sweden before the end of the year,” said Julian Knowles, an extradition lawyer not involved in the case.
Vaughan Smith, the owner of the country mansion where Mr. Assange is living, said his friend's prospects appeared bleak. “It's not good news,” he told the AP.
Mr. Smith said Mr. Assange is concerned about the impact on his organization if he is sent to Sweden, fearing he would likely be held in prison as he contests the allegations against him.
“How can you run WikiLeaks from a jail? You can't,” Mr. Smith said. “There is a pretty good reason for him not wanting to go to Sweden.”
It's also not clear whether Mr. Assange has the resources to fund a continued legal battle. In a recent dispute over his autobiography — a draft of which was published without his permission — the WikiLeaks founder revealed that he'd fallen out with his previous lawyers over the size of his bill and didn't have enough cash to sue his publishers.
Mr. Assange and his supporters say he's not drawing on WikiLeaks funds for his defence.
In the ruling, appeal judges rejected key arguments from Mr. Assange's legal team. They said Sweden had the right to issue a warrant for Assange, rejected claims the alleged offence had been inaccurately described, dismissed issues over Sweden's process for instigating criminal inquiries and ruled that prosecutors had been proportionate in their actions.
“This is self-evidently not a case relating to a trivial offence, but to serious sexual offences,” the judges said, upholding an original court decision in February that Mr. Assange should be extradited.
Mr. Assange has said the sexual encounters were consensual and his lawyer Ben Emmerson had previously argued the allegations would not be considered crimes in England.
The appeal judges said that apparent inconsistencies in some of the allegations against Mr. Assange should not affect his extradition to face questioning — even though those issues could be valid in any future trial. They cited as one example the fact that one woman who claimed Assange had unprotected sex with her against her will while she was asleep had later said she might have been partially awake.
“These are matters of evidence which would be highly relevant at trial,” the judges wrote. But “it is not for this court to assess whether the allegations may fail.”
With Mr. Assange one step closer to extradition, it's an open question whether his site can survive. WikiLeaks finances are under intense pressure and some of its biggest revelations are already in the public domain. Only last week Mr. Assange warned that the site was so low on cash it would have to stop publishing leaks and could shut down altogether in two months unless its funding improves.
Mr. Assange also faces possible legal action in the United States, where prosecutors are investigating possible criminal charges against him.
commentary by the Ottawa Mens Centre
The Swedish criminal complaint against Julian is a lesson to every other
western country on the issue of sexual assaults.
While Julian Assange is a man, increasingly these offenses, similar to that
committed by Assange are committed by women, with the blessing of the Canadian
Courts.
Our charter supposedly guarantees equality but that's a very sick joke in Canada
when it comes to sexual abuse.
Agreeing to protected sex with a man and later discovering he had deliberately
ripped the condom to inseminate, is RAPE.
And it is also rape when a women claims she can't conceive but leads a man to
have sex having him to believe that she will not and cannot become pregnant.
These offenses are routinely committed by women in Canada, their goal is to
become pregnant by finding an unwitting S.P.E.R.M. Donor.
Its rape, often women approaching the end of their fertility age, become
extremely aggressive sexual predators, and once pregnant their goal is to steal,
hundreds of thousands of dollars if not millions of dollars in child support
while using the child as a blackmail tool.
Pay up, pay per visit , agree to an outragious order for support based on income
that does not exist or you don't get to see the child.
What kind of women can engage in this sort of RAPE? Lots, take any woman with a
mental health problem and or a personality disorder and you start heading
towards a small but significant percentage of the female population.
Canada's feminist need to take careful note of how Women are victims of rape by
the likes of Julian Assange and also, how Men are increasingly victims of
Canada's Male Sharia Law that increasingly removes all legal rights from men.
One legal move that is absolutely essential to minimize these abuses is a Legal
Presumption of Equal Parenting, and, laws that require DNA confirmation of both
parents with men able to search data banks of births to see if THEIR DNA has
resulted in a child by RAPE.
There needs to be serious repercussions and specific criminal charges where
s.P.e.R.M is stolen by women for the purposes of creating a child with the
consent of the man.
www.OttawaMensCentre.com
\Take a close look at the information of the complainants,
its very credible, they were his supporters, he wanted a shot at making them
pregnant without the women's consent.
He knew they did not want unprotected sex, and went ahead. That's RAPE and it
should also be added to the Criminal Code of Canada applicable to both men and
women especially those who steal S.perm.
www.OttawaMensCentre.com