WikiLeaks' Julian Assange has lost his fight to have the British authorities drop charges for breaking bail conditions when he walked into the Ecuadorean embassy in London 2012. Assange initially sought refuge in the embassy after skipping bail in order to escape extradition to Sweden (and possibly the US after that) after allegations of rape.
The rape allegations were blown out of proportion in the media, in actuality the charge was "sex by surprise" which means not using a condom, or beginning sex using a condom and then removing it in the midst of the act. The Swedish case was finally dropped in May but Britain is still after him for breach of bail.
Assange has been holed up in the embassy for nearly six years now. His lawyers were arguing that it was not in the interest of British authorities to seek his arrest nor to prosecute him for skipping bail.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The leader of France's leftist party, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, says France should extend political asylum to Julian Assange to protect him from the threats of Trump's CIA Director to prosecute him for publishing docs, which he says the UK is working to enable <a href="https://t.co/xto4nf6NOS">https://t.co/xto4nf6NOS</a></p>— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) <a href="https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/961942420685512704?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 9, 2018</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote>“Having weighed up the factors for and against … I find arrest is a proportionate response even though Mr Assange has restricted his own freedom for a number of years,” judge Emma Arbuthnot said in her ruling at Westminster Magistrates Court. Defendants on bail up and down the country, and requested persons facing extradition, come to court to face the consequences of their own choices. He should have the courage to do so too,” she said.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I am sure that I could have predicted that a Newsweek "journalist" such as <a href="https://twitter.com/MichaelEHayden?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MichaelEHayden</a> would be unprofessional, not fact check and amplify a black PR operation against a political refugee the CIA has vowed to "take down".<a href="https://t.co/0ct4465M2x">https://t.co/0ct4465M2x</a> <a href="https://t.co/UswbM7zjv8">pic.twitter.com/UswbM7zjv8</a></p>— Julian Assange ⌛ (@JulianAssange) <a href="https://twitter.com/JulianAssange/status/962355533037568000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2018</a></blockquote>
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As Gawker and others have pointed out, the <a href="http://gawker.com/5619931/meet-wikileaks-founders-alleged-sex-victim">CIA connections both women who accused Assange</a> (who knew each other coincidentally) share seem rather suspect. Hillary Clinton famously asked why we couldn't just drone strike Assange. With all this against him, is it any wonder he's been keeping underground?
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="es" dir="ltr">Cobran las "damas" de blanco? Aquí un cable de wikileaks <a href="http://t.co/zVFgOU2n">http://t.co/zVFgOU2n</a> … por algo persiguen a Julian Assange, no por abuso sexual</p>— El Akn del Medio☭ (@edufu) <a href="https://twitter.com/edufu/status/293760203659292672?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 22, 2013</a></blockquote>
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A CIA counterterrorism official, Phil Mudd, called Assange a "pedophile" (sex by surprise is classified as an act of "molestation" in Sweden) however both women were adults. <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/312654-wikileaks-threatens-cnn-with-defamation-suit-over-pedophilia-claim">WikiLeaks threatened CNN with a defamation lawsuit</a> until they retracted the story.
Related coverage:
https://thegoldwater.com/news/15756-Ecuador-Gives-Julian-Assange-A-Passport
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