Accusations should be investigated by the justice system, not dismissed just because the person is famous.
They should face those accusations by being interviewed by the persecutor, and if the prosecutor believes there is a case to answer, they should face those accusations in court.
The Swedish police have had the option to interview Assange in London for three years, all expenses paid. They have chosen instead to temporize and delay, and thereby leave the investigation without closure. Note that the Swedish police have conducted foreign interviews in the past, but for some reason seem intent on drawing out this particular process.
They've asked to, multiple times. The Ecuadorian embassy won't let them.
"Last month, Ecuador’s prosecutor-general rejected a previous request from the Swedish prosecutor to question Assange in London. That office, in a letter to Swedish authorities, said it will interview Assange and asked for a list of questions the Swedish prosecutor wants the Ecuadorian prosecutor to ask the Wikileaks founder."
Ecuador did not refuse. They are the ones who wanted Assange to be questioned in the embassy in the first place. But obviously there is a procedure for this to happen, and as another commenter says, a date has now been set. The Swedes, after years of refusing to come to London to question Assange, finally agreed after the UN ruled that Assange's stay is arbitrary detention and criticised Sweden for its handling of the case.
It seems they've finally come to an agreement that looks acceptable to both Ecuadorian and Swedish courts. Provisionally the date has been set for Oct 17th.
They have only asked once, and prior to that they left the offer open for two years. The Ecuadorian prosecutor has every right to intercede in the matter, especially if he is uncertain of the security situation. Interviews by proxy have also been used by Swedish authorities in the past.
Suppose that you're accused of a crime in North Korea and somehow you manage to escape the country.
Will you still respect what you said in the comment and return to NK to stand trial ?
Replace North Korea with Iran, Iraq, Syria or any other country known to be a corrupt or totalitarian state...
Aka at least half of all the countries in the world...
As a foreigner, you wouldn't trust the justice system in those countries and you would be right to try to avoid the trial.
So you see, the validity of what you said depends a lot on the context.
Even if the Swedish investigation and the trial is totally fair, it is not really the issue.
The issue is the extradition treaty with the US - Sweden will have to make a choice - Assange or good relations with the U.S.
And this is were the deadlock is. Go to Sweden and get unfairly convicted (low probability) or get extradited to the US and get life in prison (high probability). Or both.
Sweden is not North Korea and countries don't extradite to the US all the time because the US justice system is atrocious by first world standards.
Should a Swedish court rule against extraditing Assange to the US, that will have exactly no impact on the relationship between the US and Sweden. No government can reasonably expect from another to break its own laws and it is certainly not in US interest for Sweden to go down that route. Not to mention that the US also reserves the right not to extradite to Sweden in individual cases.
> No government can reasonably expect from another to break its own laws and it is certainly not in US interest for Sweden to go down that route.
I feel and respect your desire for and belief in integrity on the part of the system, but it's extremely naive to believe that.
Maybe it's the fact that I've lived in many different cultures (including Sweden for a year btw!) or maybe it's my age, but what I've taken away from life so far is this:
There's the story which all people (should) believe and then there's the shit that happens.
We're being lied to since we're born - santa claus, tooth fairy, God, then justice, patriotism, news, terrorism, traitors and so on.
Wikileaks is one of the tools which shows us a glimpse of the shit that really happens.
Corruption, under-the-table deals, intimidations - including members of foreign governments, illegal detentions of foreign citizens, surveillance..
Always treat 'the System' with healthy skepticism - and that is because the information that it broadcasts is often false - due to incompetence on the part of the 'reporters' (usually) or due to hidden agendas that so many groups have.
The world is a combination of many chess games played at the same time - in some you're a pawn, in some you're a rook, in some you're the board ;).
They should face those accusations by being interviewed by the persecutor, and if the prosecutor believes there is a case to answer, they should face those accusations in court.