Ruminations

Blog dedicated primarily to randomly selected news items; comments reflecting personal perceptions

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Violation!

Splendidly bizarre, that's what the charges of Julian Assange's lawyers sound like; too ridiculous for anyone to take seriously. Flagrantly outlandish, to accuse a country like Sweden of having a corrupt judicial system. Mr. Assange's lawyers contend it would not be possible for him to receive a fair trial in Sweden were he to return to face charges of rape and molestation.

They've indulged in a show of silly rhetoric to purvey their view that Julian Assange would be in peril of his reputation, certain to be incarcerated, were he to return to face the allegations brought against him by two women with whom he enjoyed a brief and casual fling. It's hard to really consider anything remotely related to rape, when the women in question willingly shared their beds with the man.

Evidently they believe, or have been led to believe by a very assiduous prosecutor who insists that he must submit to the judicial procedure in Sweden to clear himself of the allegations brought against him, that there is the devious hand of the United States in this. Which is digging pretty deep, to imply that Sweden is somehow subject to pressure from the U.S.

But that hasn't stopped his lawyers from suggesting that Sweden would hand Assange over to the U.S., and he would end up at Guatanamo Bay, where his life would be forfeit. And all for a little bedtime engagement that had mutual consent. Ah, but the prosecutor contends, the woman whom Assange was lying next to was asleep and hadn't given her consent to sex - that time.

His lawyer Geoffrey Robertson claims a rape trial in Sweden, where no press is permitted to witness the proceedings, and the public is not allowed to be present, would represent a violation of his human rights. "He would be tried behind closed doors in a flagrant denial of justice", he huffed in a London court.

Isn't it deliciously ironic that WikiLeaks founder, who delights in confounding governments and politicians and exposing their official documents to the public eye, making a general nuisance of himself and delighting the reading public by the quasi-scandalous reports that simply confirm what has already been bruited about in the regular news media, is now caught in his own little scandal.

The salacious details of which have been dribbled out here and there, much to the chagrin of Mr. Assange, who doesn't much care to be on the receiving end of public attention when it makes him look awkwardly deficient in his choice of private activity. Rather than the notice he receives enabling him to preen his noble image as an exemplar of free-speech and -information- enabler.

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