{"id":38977,"date":"2019-04-13T10:24:03","date_gmt":"2019-04-13T10:24:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=38977"},"modified":"2019-04-13T10:24:03","modified_gmt":"2019-04-13T10:24:03","slug":"british-mps-say-wikileaks-assange-should-face-justice-in-sweden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=38977","title":{"rendered":"British MPs say WikiLeaks’ Assange should face justice in Sweden"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

More than 70 British members of parliament have signed a letter urging the home secretary to ensure that\u00a0WikiLeaks cofounder\u00a0Julian Assange<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>is extradited to Sweden<\/a> if a case there is reopened against him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The letter, signed late on Friday by mostly\u00a0<\/span>Labour Party<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>MPs, urged UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid to “stand with the victims of sexual violence” and ensure the rape claim against him can be “properly investigated”.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We do not presume guilt, of course, but we believe due process should be followed and the complainant should see justice be done,” it said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 47-year-old Australian activist was\u00a0<\/span>arrested by British police<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>on Thursday and forcibly removed from the Ecuadorian embassy in London after his asylum was revoked, bringing to an end more than six years in the building.<\/span><\/p>\n

Assange originally sought asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to\u00a0<\/span>Sweden<\/span>, where prosecutors wanted to question him over a rape allegation, which he denied. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sweden suspended its investigation of serious sexual misconduct two years ago because Assange was beyond their reach while at the embassy.<\/p>\n

But on Friday, Swedish prosecutors said they were examining the rape case at the request of the alleged victim’s lawyer.<\/span><\/p>\n

‘Embarrassing information’<\/span><\/h2>\n

British Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott said it was right that he should face justice if charges are brought.<\/span><\/p>\n

“If the Swedish government wants to come forward with those charges, I believe that Assange should face the criminal justice system,” said Abbott, who added that the arrest was politically motivated as WikiLeaks has published enormous tranches of sensitive military information.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We all know what this is about. It’s not the rape charges, serious as they are, it’s about\u00a0<\/span>WikiLeaks<\/span><\/a>. All that embarrassing information about the activities of the American military that was made public and that is what it is about.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The move\u00a0by British MPs to push for Assange’s extradition to Sweden came hours\u00a0after the Labour Party called on the government to halt his extradition to the United States<\/a>, where he has been charged with offences related to his work with whistle-blower Chelsea Manning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Abbott said Prime Minister\u00a0Theresa May<\/span><\/a>\u00a0should intervene as she did in the case of British hacker\u00a0Gary McKinnon<\/span><\/a>, whose extradition request she rejected on medical grounds in 2012.<\/span><\/p>\n

But May has shown no desire to interfere with the US’s wishes this time. She welcomed the arrest in Parliament<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>on Thursday, where\u00a0Sajid Javid,<\/span> the current home secretary, accused Labour of supporting a man with “a track record of undermining the UK and our allies and the values we stand for”.<\/span><\/p>\n

US prosecutors say Assange\u00a0<\/span>faces five years in prison<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>if convicted of “conspiracy to commit computer intrusion”, though further charges are expected to be brought against him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Abbott’s comments followed a post\u00a0<\/span>on Twitter<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>by Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn on Thursday that praised Assange’s exposing of US war crimes in\u00a0<\/span>Iraq<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>and\u00a0<\/span>Afghanistan<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and said that his extradition to the US “should be opposed by the British government”.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than 70 British members of parliament have signed a letter urging the home secretary to ensure that\u00a0WikiLeaks cofounder\u00a0Julian Assange\u00a0is extradited to Sweden if a case there is reopened against him.\u00a0 The letter, signed late on Friday by mostly\u00a0Labour Party\u00a0MPs, urged UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid to “stand with the victims of sexual violence” and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":38978,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}