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Assange should be thanked, not tried: Analyst

Tuesday, 09 February 2016 9:06 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 09 February 2016 9:05 AM ]

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange addresses the media holding a printed report of the judgement of the UN’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on his case from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in central London, February 5, 2016. ©AFP

Press TV has interviewed David Swanson, co-founder of wariscrime.org in Virginia, and Somerset-based former US intelligence officer Bob Ayers about Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s looming arrest despite a ruling by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) that calls his arrest illegal.

Swanson describes charges against Assange as “extremely dubious,” arguing that if the US and Sweden were looking for a resolution to the issue, they would have dropped all charges and thanked him instead for “his services as a journalist.”

However, he says, the US has reached out to Sweden, asking the Stockholm government for Assange’s extradition, a claim Washington officials have firmly denied so far.

Referring to Britain and Sweden’s refusal to comply with the UN panel’s decision, Swanson points to similar cases in the past where such rulings on prisoners in non-Western countries were hailed by the very same countries.

“If this panel had ruled in the opposite direction, there is absolutely no doubt that we would be hearing its merits proclaimed from the streets of London and Stockholm,” the author of War Is a Lie added.

Swanson also criticized the US government for going after journalists and whistle-blowers, and in Assange’s case, twisting their legal reasoning to prosecute a foreigner.

For his part, Ayers accuses the Wikileaks founder of “hiding from law” by taking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He also discredits UNGWAD and questions the enforceability of its ruling, arguing that the panel is comprised of academics and not lawyers.

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