[niklasl]

As a Swede, I can tell you we don't give a flying fuck about Assange and neither does the prime minister. If he had just come here and had his trial, he would have had about 95% chance of being acquitted (the courts being rather more cautious on sexual matters than the prosecutors here) and could go back to doing what he does.

As for the secret trials and disappearing thing. Sweden has such a good reputation on freedom that Wikileaks wanted to relocate here before Assange got into trouble. He's certainly no worse off here than in the UK.

[illumen]

You are wrong. The Swedish Prime minister has made public statements that the man is guilty. So has the Swedish press.

[marcusf]

Neither of them have any control of the courts, though. And of course our press will latch on to a juicy story, as would any.

[illumen]

The Prime Minister creates law. The press influence the courts through criticism and informing public opinion. The courts have already been subjected to almost a year of media coverage influencing them, and the politicians influencing them.

There is a reason why the politicians are not supposed to comment on criminal cases. There is also a reason why people are supposed to make their decisions on the evidence and arguments in the court rather than being influenced by the media.

Search on the internet for "Julian Assange is a rapist" on google.se and you will find countless claims that he is guilty coming from people in Sweden. Julian Assange är en våldtäktsman, brings up 1.5 million results on google.se.

Having a secret trial, in a country proven to declare the guilt of the accused - without hearing the evidence - is not a fair trial.

The whole thing makes a mockery of justice. He should be given a fair trial - as should anyone else on this planet.

Let's try and flip nationalism around for the moment. Assume You personally were accused of something by the prosecutors of Finland, or the USA. Then the president of the USA comes out and says that you are "an enemy of the people", and states that you have bad ideas on committing crimes. Then you are going to be shipped off to the USA for a trial - but of course the evidence will not be made public, people will just have to trust the courts.

There is a great risk of an unfair trial in Sweden for this case(not all cases). There is also a high risk that he will be sent to the USA and face execution once in Sweden - as stated by the Swedish prosecution.

International law, and human rights should apply. This should be taken to a higher court in the UK.

[marcusf]

I really don't want to argue the point too much. We've obviously got different views on this, and differing experiences with the swedish judiciary system. PM Reinfeldt would not sign anything in to law regarding this, and parliament would never approve it. There's no basis in history for assuming anything like remotely like that would occur.

Also "Julian Assange är en våldtäktsman" returns 360 hits, not 1.5 mil, where most of them are the suffix of the meaning "If Julian Assange is a rapist...", so your interpretation is a bit off. As others have stated, the verdict is still out. Swedes are not smelling blood, and I resent that interpretation of Swedes as a collective and the accusation that he would not get a fair trial in Sweden.

[tjogin]

*Citation Needed.