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Original poster

How on earth has Julian assange been arbitrarily held??

176 replies

StealthPolarBear · 04/02/2016 13:21

Surely if you choose to resist arrest in this way then it is your choice?
Glad rhe police continue to say he will be arrested.

OP posts:
JessicaJones · 08/02/2016 13:48

I haven't followed this in close detail, but I thought I'd read that Assange doesn't deny what happened, he just doesn't believe it was rape. If that's true, I can't see how it can be claimed that they are the charges are 'very obviously fabricated'. He might truly believe he didn't do anything wrong but that doesn't mean the charges are 'trumped up', it just puts him in the company of a whole group of rapists who believe they have the right to use women's bodies as they choose.

FairNotFair · 08/02/2016 14:27

Assange doesn't deny what happened, he just doesn't believe it was rape

Shades of Ched Evans...

GingerCuddleMonsterThe2nd · 08/02/2016 14:32

All I know is if I kill someone I'm going to run off to a embassy and hide and wait till it all blows over, a bit like Shaun of the dead and the Winchester Grin

PouletDePrintemps · 08/02/2016 15:02

I do wonder what the Ecuadorian Embassy staff make of all this. I read an article last year that claimed that it was all getting a bit tense in the fairly small embassy building as JA took over increasing amounts of space and entertained his friends, demanded his favourite food be brought in etc.

DinosaursRoar · 08/02/2016 15:11

I think is very unfair to compare him to Ched Evans. Mainly to Ched Evans who cooperated fully with the police, argued his case in court without running away, served his time and while he still maintains what he did shouldn't be viewed as rape, fully engaged with the judicial process in this country without making any attempt to flee.

And something has gone very wrong if you find yourself behaving in a way that makes Ched Evans look good....

LurkingHusband · 08/02/2016 15:14

Assange doesn't deny what happened, he just doesn't believe it was rape

Sadly, for JA, the law doesn't work that way. In Sweden, or England and Wales.

hedgehogsdontbite · 08/02/2016 15:34

If he'd complied with the investigation, been found guilty and imprisoned in Sweden he'd be free again by now. I bet he's wishing he'd never started digging this hole he's in now.

APlaceOnTheCouch · 08/02/2016 16:14

And something has gone very wrong if you find yourself behaving in a way that makes Ched Evans look good.... so true! Grin

Ginger can I suggest you choose a different embassy from JA? I doubt they have space for another fugitive from justice. Plus it doesn't have a garden. I am envisaging an Embassy Trip Advisor for fugitives. 5 for the embassy that has a garden, granny flat and a secret tunnel to a private airstrip. 2 for Ecuador because you have to share with JA, his collection of Harrods' hampers and have weekly visits from Vivienne Westwood although I do like her clothes and am beyond sad she visits JA

DinosaursRoar · 08/02/2016 16:16

Hedgehogsdontbite - yep, he'd be on his merry way! Or even might be found not guilty, flown out of Sweden without the USA suddenly deciding to extridate him and the whole business be done and dusted.

APlaceOnTheCouch · 08/02/2016 16:23

Poulet I wonder how the Embassy staff feel about it too. I imagine some of them must have to fight the urge to push him off the balcony into the arms of waiting police when he is doing his Eva Peron impersonation.

Perhaps one day, they will snap and drag him out on to the pavement whilst he's sleeping.

Adds 'balcony' to checklist for Embassy criteria

GingerCuddleMonsterThe2nd · 08/02/2016 16:27

APlace I was thinking of go to one where I enjoyed their national food, maybe the Mexican embassy for me or something haha Grin

On a serious note I'm glad the British Gov for once said "are you fucking serious? No!"

The cry for compensation nearly gave me some sort of seizure too I think. JA can come out any time he wants.

I also secretly hope they dump him outside in his sleep.

LadyStoicIsBack · 08/02/2016 17:24

I'm surprised and disappointed in you lot, call yourselves vipers eh? Hmm FFS, why has no-one asked the standard and de rigeur pressing MN 'long-term guest' questions?

Is he pulling his weight in the Ecuadorian Embassy? Is he a cocklodger or does he chip in his fair share towards the food? Does he unload the dishwasher when the rota says it's his turn to? Is he leaving his y-fronts to dry on the rads for all to see? Does he seriously expect to be fed every day but hasn't once offered to cook dinner?Grin

And is it just me or does anyone else remember the long running thread recently regarding an uninvited guest over-staying their welcome?

As for having his mates over.... well, if he wants to do that then he should bloody well get his own place huh?Grin

And I'm tempted to start a thread regarding the glaring double standards of said uninvited guest... freedom of information fighter on the one hand, "can someone please shut that person down?" on t'other.

Honestly, it's beyond a farce and it IS seriously laughable until you remember there is an allegation of serious sexual assault somehow lost in the midst of his 'plight'.

PerspicaciaTick · 08/02/2016 18:01

And did he take wine or a candle?

DinosaursRoar · 08/02/2016 18:12

Also wonder how the female staff feel being expected to help a suspected rapist avoid having to face up to what he did, I'm not sure I'd feel safe around him.

APlaceOnTheCouch · 08/02/2016 18:47

I don't think it would be wise to feel safe around him. He's shown no remorse or even any understanding of what he has done. Plus, the longer he stays in there, the more deluded he seems to become.

PouletDePrintemps · 09/02/2016 11:05

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

CoteDAzur · 09/02/2016 11:08

I haven't RTFT but has there been a new development re 'what constitutes rape'?

AFAIK the sex was very much consensual but there was once instance when he said he put the condom on but didn't or something.

Are we calling that rape these days, or has there been another accusation against Assange that I haven't heard of?

mummytime · 09/02/2016 11:24

And something has gone very wrong if you find yourself behaving in a way that makes Ched Evans look good....

This is so true.

CoteDAzur - the point is no one really knows what he's been charged with, as he hasn't stood trial. He should stand trial and then judgement can be made. I haven't heard that Sweden has a particularly unjust criminal justice system (which is the only grounds I can see for fleeing justice). And aren't its prison cells better than student room in the UK?

CoteDAzur · 09/02/2016 11:28

" the point is no one really knows what he's been charged with, as he hasn't stood trial. He should stand trial and then judgement can be made"

Quite the contrary, the accusations were made public. Page after detailed page of interviews with those two women were posted on here when Swedish courts first wanted him to come for an interview.

And justice doesn't quite work like you seem to think it does. First you hear the charge and are given ample time to prepare your defence for it. Then comes the trial.

Lottapianos · 09/02/2016 11:34

'Are we calling that rape these days, or has there been another accusation against Assange that I haven't heard of?'

From what I understand, the woman consented to sex with a condom. She did not consent to sex without a condom. The allegation is that she woke up to him 'having sex with her' without a condom - she challenged him and he carried on. So yes, in that context, 'we' are most certainly calling it rape.

CoteDAzur · 09/02/2016 11:41

She asked him "Do you have a condom on?" and he said "Oh yes" or whatever and then she realised either the condom wasn't on or that it was torn and so ineffective.

I'm 100% against rape and will fight for any woman who has been raped but this isn't what I would call rape, sorry. Consent for sex was there. He was never told "No" or "I don't want this" or whatever. Assange sounds like a jerk but not a rapist. I haven't read anything that suggests he wouldn't have backed off if told "No" so don't understand what 'not feeling safe around him' is supposed to mean.

He could have been charged for wilfully infecting someone if he has a communicable disease, but calling this 'rape' makes a mockery of the terrible ordeal that women who have been raped have been through and likely continue to go through every day of their lives.

APlaceOnTheCouch · 09/02/2016 11:45

Cote I think you may be remembering it incorrectly. At JA's extradition appeal, the three UK judges said:

^"It is clear that the allegation is that he had sexual intercourse with her when she was not in a position to consent and so he could not have had any reasonable belief that she did."
The court also rejected Mr Assange's assertion that the descriptions of the offences were not a fair and accurate description of the conduct alleged against him.
They added: "This is self evidently not a case relating to a trivial offence, but to serious sexual offences."

CoteDAzur · 09/02/2016 11:52

I read the interview with her at the time. They had sex the night before. In the morning, she was sleeping when she felt his hands, then slowly woke up as it all progressed and continued on to have fully consensual sex with him.

This has always been called 'morning sex' in my experience with various partners and now DH. Are we calling it 'rape' now?

Surely rape would be if he continued despite being told 'no' at any point.

Again, I'm with the woman 100% of the time, but she said it wasn't rape at the time and only brought this to the attention of the police because she was pissed off to find out afterwards that condom wasn't there. She wanted him to be forced to do an STD test, that's all.

APlaceOnTheCouch · 09/02/2016 12:03

I'm confused Cote are you saying that the UK judges were wrong about the law or that the woman was forced to change her claim? Because, the following was released this week:

^Elizabeth Fritz, the lawyer for the woman who has accused Assange of rape, said the UN ruling was offensive to her client.
'That a man who is wanted on an arrest warrant for rape should be awarded compensation for intentionally hide from the judicial system for more than five years is offensive to my client and to the human rights of all victims of crime,' she said in a statement.^

CoteDAzur · 09/02/2016 12:05

As I said, I haven't followed the recent news/claims but the girls were clearly saying in the original one that the sex was consensual and the problem was the condom.

Are they now saying Assange forced himself on them?