[arrrg]

Because the Swedish government cannot guarantee upfront that they will not extradite him some time in the future. They are not psychic. They have a treaty with the US and they want to honour that. If they get a request and it doesn’t violate any of the conditions they have for extradition with the US then the Swedish government will extradite him. (Which, by the way, is completely normal.)

Asking for a guarantee to not be extradited is just completely insane. It’s like asking not to imprisoned.

You know, I have done nothing wrong, nothing for which I could possibly ever end up in prison, so pretty please my government, why won’t you give me a guarantee that you won’t ever put me in prison? Wouldn’t that be nice? No, it’s just absurd and a preposterous demand.

All the Swedish government can do is assure him that there are currently no extradition requests from the US and that if that doesn’t change he is guaranteed to not be extradited to the US. (I don’t think that guarantee would have been enough for Assange.)