The UK Guardian reports today that it has learned that “The decision to have Julian Assange sent to a London jail and kept there was taken by the British authorities and not by prosecutors in Sweden, as previously thought..”
The Crown Prosecution Service will go to the high court tomorrow to seek the reversal of a decision to free the WikiLeaks founder on bail, made yesterday by a judge at City of Westminster magistrates court.
It had been widely thought Sweden had made the decision to oppose bail, with the CPS acting merely as its representative. But today the Swedish prosecutor’s office told the Guardian it had “not got a view at all on bail” and that Britain had made the decision to oppose bail.
…
Karin Rosander, director of communications for Sweden’s prosecutor’s office, told the Guardian: “The decision was made by the British prosecutor. I got it confirmed by the CPS this morning that the decision to appeal the granting of bail was entirely a matter for the CPS. The Swedish prosecutors are not entitled to make decisions within Britain. It is entirely up to the British authorities to handle it.”
…
After the Swedish statement was put to the CPS, it confirmed that all decisions concerning the opposing of bail being granted to Assange had been taken by its lawyers.
The Guardian closes its article saying that it has seen the appeal, and says that it “will say that Assange must be kept in prison until a decision is made whether to extradite him, which could take months.”
Jeralyn at TalkLeft today also reminds that “At yesterday’s hearing, Sweden opposed bail“, and today the Swedish prosecutor has “not got a view at all on bail”??
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Who made the decision for Britain?
thinking just that down the line!
To me, it’s not at all surprising — afterall, the U.K. still, apparently, hangs tight with the U.S. (more so, I would say, than Sweden — but Sweden, surprisingly, also seems to have a bit of an alliance with the U.S., but I don’t think it would compare to the U.K.).
foreign invasion by heathens and the Franco’s, Mussolini’s, Stalin’s and other assorted Fascists and Commies hiding in their midsts. The U.S. learned everything it knows from 18th Century Europe including the absurd art of diplomacy best exemplified by the Marx Brothers and the Three Stooges.