Sweden reopens rape case against Julian Assange TechCrunch

Swedens prosecution authority has reopened a preliminary investigation into Wikileaks founder Julian Assange on an allegation of rape dating back to 2010.

It said todayit will issue a European Arrest Warrant for Assange, and submit an application for a detention order to Uppsala District Court as the suspected crime took place in Enkping municipality.

An earlier attempt by the Swedish prosecution authority to investigate the alleged sex crime was dropped after Assange fled to the Ecuadorian embassy in London, UK, in 2012.

A second sex crime allegation against Assange involving a separate Swedish woman cannot be reopened as the legal time-limit on pursuing a case has been exceeded.

The Wikileaks founder was arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy in London last month, after it withdrew diplomatic asylum. He was then quickly found guilty of breaching his 2012 bail conditions. A judge at Southwark Crown Court sentenced him to 50 weeks earlier this month. He is now serving that sentence in the UKs Belmarsh prison.

Swedens deputy director of public prosecution, Eva-Marie Persson, said today that any conflict between the European Arrest Warrant and an existing US extradition request for Assange will be decided by UK authorities.

It would be up to UK courts and potentially the home secretary, Sajid Javid to make a final decision where to send Assange if there are conflicting extradition requests.

Once in UK police custody last month the Wikileaks founder was also almost immediately rearrested on behalf of the U.S. which is seeking his extradition on a charge of conspiracy to hack into a classified computer relating to the leaking of military secrets to Wikileaks by whistleblower, Chelsea Manning.

I am well aware of the fact that an extradition process is ongoing in the UK and that he could be extradited to the US. In the event of a conflict between a European Arrest Warrant and a request for extradition from the US, UK authorities will decide on the order of priority. The outcome of this process is impossible to predict. However, in my view the Swedish case can proceed concurrently with the proceedings in the UK, said Persson in a statement regarding potential extradition conflict.

In wider comments regarding reopening the case she said simply that circumstances have changed.

On account of Julian Assange leaving the Ecuadorian embassy, the circumstances in this case have changed. I take the view that there exists the possibility to take the case forward.

She also noted that UK authorities have told her office Assange must serve 25 weeks of his sentence before he can be released.

Reopening the investigation against Assange means a number of investigative measures will take place, she added, suggesting her office could seek to question Assange while he is detained in UK prison while noting he would have to agree to co-operate with any interview.

In my opinion a new interview with the suspect is required. It may be necessary, with the support of a European Investigation Order, to request an interview with [Assange] be held in the UK. Such an interview, however, requires [hi]s consent, she said.

Wikileaks editor-in-chief, Kristinn Hrafnsson, has responded to Sweden reopening the rape allegation investigation with a statement in which he claims the country is doing so under intense political pressure and that the case has been mishandled throughout.

He also denies Assange ever sought to evade the investigation, despite fleeing to and remaining within the Ecuadorian Embassy for seven years, and suggests that a fresh investigation will give Julian a chance to clear his name.

In a statement in UK court ahead of his sentencing for breaching bail conditions Assange apologized unreservedly to those who consider that I have disrespected them by the way I have pursued my case, adding that he regretted his decision to flee.

Assange was always willing to answer any questions from the Swedish authorities and repeatedly offered to do so, over six years. The widespread media assertion that Assange evaded Swedish questioning is false, Hrafnsson writes now, leaving little wiggle room should Assange decline to be interviewed by Swedish prosecutors while behind bars in the UK.

Last month a cross-party coalition of 70 UK MPs wrote to the home secretary calling for him to champion action to ensure Assange is extradited to Sweden should prosecutors request it, as they now have.

Their letter called for Javid to stand with the victims of sexual violence and seek to ensure the case against Mr Assange can now be properly investigated, to ensure due process is followed for the complainant.

Parliamentarians also pointed out that the legal expiry date in this case of alleged rape is August 2020, meaning theres only a short window to take a case against Assange to court arguing that the Swedish prosecutors should therefore be given priority in any extradition conflict with the US.

Assange is challenging the US extradition request appearing at a court hearing May 2, via videolink, to say he did not consent to being sent to the US,per the Guardian, while the court heard that the extradition process would take many months.

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Sweden reopens rape case against Julian Assange TechCrunch

Ecuador will give Julian Assanges embassy computers and …

The government of Ecuador has taken one more step in its offensive against cyberactivist Julian Assange. The Ecuadorian attorney general has greenlighted an operation to search one of the rooms that the WikiLeaks founder used during his prolonged stay at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and agreed to turn over to US authorities any documents, cellphones, digital files, computers, memory drives, CDs and any other devices that may turn up during the search, according to an official notice that EL PAS has seen.

The US government wants Assange to be extradited from the United Kingdom so he can be tried for the release of classified military material in 2010. He is being charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion in the US, and faces up to five years in prison if found guilty of leaking 450,000 internal documents about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to the media.

The systematic violation of Assanges rights is going beyond the limits of whats conceivable

Baltasar Garzn, Assanges lawyer

The search of Assanges sealed-off room will take place on May 20 as part of a petition for judicial assistance issued by the US Department of Justice to the government of Ecuador. The request says the search will take place at 9am London time, under the oversight of police chief Diego Lpez and second sergeant Milton Jaque, a computer forensic expert. The decision to confiscate Assanges belongings has been communicated to his lawyer in Ecuador, Carlos Poveda.

The 47-year-old activist was arrested on April 11 at the embassy in London and turned over to British authorities after Ecuador withdrew its asylum. Assange was granted political asylum in June 2012, by the leftist government of Rafael Correa after all his legal efforts to fight extradition to Sweden had failed. He was wanted in that country on two sexual assault charges.

But Correas successor, Lenn Moreno, considered Assange an inherited problem and a stone in the shoe. The new administration in Ecuador improved its relations with the US, and Moreno introduced tougher visiting rules and living conditions for Assange at the diplomatic mission in London. On April 11 Ecuador revoked its protection, allowing British authorities to arrest the activist, and now the Moreno administration is agreeing to turn over his personal computing devices and files to the US government.

Baltasar Garzn, a former crusading judge from Spain who is now Assanges lawyer, has described this latest decision as an absolute violation of the institution of asylum by Ecuador.

It is incomprehensible that the country that afforded him protection is now taking advantage of its privileged position to turn over his belongings to the country that is persecuting him. These belongings will be seized without a court warrant, without protecting the rights of political refugees, without respecting the chain of custody, added Garzn. And this is made worse by the system of illicit recordings that went on at the embassy, and over which a complaint has already been filed. The systematic violation of Assanges rights is going beyond conceivable limits.

The judicial cooperation between the current government of Ecuador and the US began months ago. The Ecuadorian justice system allowed US authorities to take statements from diplomatic personnel at the London embassy, and Assanges lawyers are not ruling out the possibility that recordings, audio files and documents taken from the activist and one of his lawyers during an alleged spy operation may have ended up in the hands of the United States government.

This is confidential material that will allow the US to come up with new charges to request his extradition

Aitor Martnez, lawyer

Meanwhile, Assange has also filed a complaint with Spains High Court, the Audiencia Nacional, against a Spanish journalist and four computer programmers who attempted to sell him hundreds of videos and documents depicting private moments of his last few years at the embassy. This group was asking for 3 million in exchange for not releasing this material to the media. The United Nations special rapporteur on privacy is also analyzing this alleged case of spying.

Aitor Martnez, one of the lawyers in the legal team defending the Australian activist, says that Ecuadors recent initiatives are a manifest and radical violation of the right to a defense, since those documents and devices contain all of [Assanges] communications with his lawyers and his legal documents. This is confidential material that will allow the US to come up with new charges to request his extradition.

The WikiLeaks founder has formally told a London court that he does not wish to surrender to extradition to the US. Days before that, another British court sentenced him to 50 weeks in prison for jumping bail in 2012, at the time when he was facing extradition to Sweden on rape and sexual assault charges.

English version by Susana Urra.

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Ecuador will give Julian Assanges embassy computers and ...

Julian Assange: Sweden reopens rape investigation – bbc.com

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Swedish prosecutors have reopened an investigation into a rape allegation made against Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange in 2010.

The inquiry has been revived at the request of the alleged victim's lawyer.

Assange, who denies the accusation, has avoided extradition to Sweden for seven years after seeking refuge at the Ecuadorean embassy in London in 2012.

The 47-year-old was evicted last month and sentenced to 50 weeks in jail for breaching his bail conditions.

He is currently being held at Belmarsh prison in London.

Swedish prosecutors originally decided to drop the rape investigation two years ago, saying they felt unable to take the case forward while Assange remained holed up inside the embassy.

But on Monday, Sweden's deputy director of public prosecutions, Eva-Marie Persson, announced the case would be reopened because there was still "probable cause to suspect" that Assange had committed the alleged rape.

"Now that he has left Ecuador's embassy, the conditions in the case have changed and... the conditions are in place once again to pursue the case," she said at a news conference, adding that a European Arrest Warrant would now be issued.

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His removal from the embassy, and the subsequent decision to reopen the inquiry, is likely to raise the question of which extradition request should take precedence: that of Sweden or the US.

The US is seeking Assange's extradition from the UK over his alleged role in the release of classified military and diplomatic material by Wikileaks in 2010.

Australian-born Assange faces a charge of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion in the US. He is accused of participating in one of the largest ever leaks of government secrets, which could result in a prison term of up to five years.

Sweden's original extradition request was made under the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) arrangements. However, it was withdrawn and so the extradition request from the US now ranks first in line. In order to displace it, Sweden's deputy director of public prosecutions said a fresh EAW request would now be issued.

If that does happen the decision as to which of the two requests take precedence will be made by UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid. He would make his decision primarily on the basis of which alleged offence was considered to be more serious.

Rape is likely to be considered more serious than conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. That would mean ordering Assange's extradition to Sweden.

Assange challenged the original Swedish request through the UK courts and could bring fresh challenges in response to a new request. These would most likely be based on human rights grounds and in particular that it would be unjust or oppressive in light of his health to extradite him.

Wikileaks said the reopening of the rape case would give Assange "a chance to clear his name".

"There has been considerable political pressure on Sweden to reopen their investigation, but there has always been political pressure surrounding this case," its editor-in-chief, Kristinn Hrafnsson, said in a statement.

A lawyer for Assange told Swedish broadcaster SVT that the decision was "embarrassing for Sweden", adding that his client wanted to resolve the case but feared being extradited to the US.

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At a separate news conference, the alleged victim's lawyer, Elisabeth Massi Fritz, said the decision to reopen the case had been "very gratifying" and that she expected this would result in a criminal charge.

Nick Vamos, former head of extradition at the Crown Prosecution Service, told Reuters news agency that the UK proceedings should not take more than 18 months.

Considering Assange's potential objections to extradition, Mr Vamos said he did not think courts would accept the US case was politically motivated.

Assange was accused of rape by a woman and sexual assault by another one following a Wikileaks conference in Stockholm in 2010. He has always denied the allegations, saying the sex was consensual.

He also faced investigations for molestation and unlawful coercion, but these cases were dropped in 2015 because time had run out.

Prosecutors have decided to reopen the rape case before the 10-year statute of limitations expires in August 2020. The sexual assault investigation was dropped after the five-year statute of limitations expired.

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Julian Assange: Sweden reopens rape investigation - bbc.com

Husic says Labor is committed to reforming Australia’s …

Days before the federal election, Shadow Minister for the Digital Economy Ed Husic has taken the opportunity to reaffirm that "win, lose, or draw" the Australia Labor Party will be reforming the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access) Act.

Saying the Bill was having a "devastating" impact locally while speaking with media in Sydney on Tuesday, Husic said it was the federal opposition's commitment to push through changes, rather than repealing it.

"Firstly, this has been an awful Bill in the way it was rammed -- put through Parliament. I know a lot of people feel very strongly about Labor's role in that," he said, pointing to Labor's capitulation.

The shadow minister said he was focused on two elements regarding the Bill, with the first being its impact locally and abroad.

"A recognition certainly that this is having a devastating impact locally. The number of firms that have told me, and even some overseas firms have said, 'This is not worth the risk, storing data on Australian soil with the laws the way that they are constructed and operating at the moment'. It's a serious issue," he said.

Read also: Amendments to Australia's encryption laws stranded before election

The second part of Husic's focus is to go back to the 17 recommendations, made by a parliamentary committee, to reform the Bill.

"It triggered around 170 amendments that we thought needed to be done, some of these amendments should have been put through in the current Parliament ... our commitment is to make sure that those happen -- whoever wins -- we'll push this, win or lose or draw, whatever, our commitment is to reform the Bill," he continued.

"We're still committed to making the changes necessary to ensure that the Bill is reformed, improved, and the worst aspects are taken out."

Husic said making changes was better than repealing the encryption legislation, as governments are trying to grapple with how to stop people using digital platforms to cause harm.

"Governments are trying to find the balance, we want to make sure we've got that balance right and we want to make sure that the impact we're seeing on the sector currently -- that we side step all that through the reforms we believe need to happen," he said.

Touching on another reform he wants to pursue if Labor is successful on the weekend, Husic said that in order to fully embrace a data economy, the public's concerns around the way their data is being accessed, used, and on-sold need to be addressed.

"Another reform piece is just the number of government bodies that are responsible for data management or data policy in government -- there's a half a dozen of them," he added.

With Labor on Monday announcing it wouldcreate 5,000 placements at TAFE, free of charge, for tech-related courses, while also saying it would push major government IT suppliers to ensure one in 10 employees working on major government digital projects are digital apprentices or trainees, Husic again expanded upon his party's plans on Tuesday on how it will deal with Australia's skill shortage.

Husic pointed to the SMART Visawhich, originally announced in May 2017, would see the introduction of a new visa reserved for "world-leaders" in Science, Medicine, Academia, Research, and Technology (SMART) in direct response to the Coalition's 457 visa reform.

"We're trying to get some momentum and focus on the skills shortage locally," he said. "We could fill every single vacancy here in Australia with a local and I'd still think there was a world for skilled migration.

"If people are doing something smart, somewhere else in the world, and they want to be here -- we should bring them here because we need to ensure the knowledge base is continually replenished."

Additionally, Husic said Labor wants an Australian Skills Authority to determine what skill requirements are needed within certain sectors. He also wants government to probe what is being done to train locals, saying the goal is to "help meet local business needs".

He also wants to help older Australians transition into other roles by upping their digital literacy.

On cutting the federal government's Entrepreneurs Fund and the Industry Growth Centres that were established under former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his AU$1.1 billion National Innovation and Science Agenda, Husic said he would prefer the funding for startups to come from the private sector rather than from taxpayers' pockets.

"We haven't announced any co-investment funds this campaign, there's a specific reason for that. I've resisted them because from my point of view I'd rather private capital support investment in a lot of early stage firms, and what I want us to invest government dollars in is human capital," he said.

"We won't be putting a lot of money forward in an investment vehicle because we're constantly being told venture capital is having its golden years at the moment and the money is coming in, so we'd rather it happen that way than government putting forward taxpayers money."

The shadow minister responded with "watch this space" on Tuesday when asked if any further election promises would be made before Saturday.

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Husic says Labor is committed to reforming Australia's ...

WhatsApps End-to-End Encryption Is a Gimmick

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- The discovery that hackers could snoop on WhatsApp should alert users of supposedly secure messaging apps to an uncomfortable truth: End-to-end encryption sounds nice but if anyone can get into your phones operating system, they will be able to read your messages without having to decrypt them.

According to a report in the Financial Times on Tuesday, the spyware that exploited the vulnerability was Pegasus, made by the Israeli company NSO. The malware could access a phones camera and microphone, open messages, capture what appears on a users screen, and log keystrokes rendering encryption pointless. It works on all operating systems, including Apples iOS, Googles Android, and Microsofts rarely used mobile version of Windows.

The cybersecurity community has known about it for years, and activists have been raising hell about its use against dissidents and journalists in dozens of countries although NSO itself says it doesnt sell Pegasus to unsavory regimes and that it is disabled in the U.S.

It was previously assumed that for Pegasus to work, the intended victim had to click on a phishing link to install the malware. But according to a brief technical description of the hack posted by WhatsApps owner, Facebook Inc., it now appears hackers can install the malware simply by calling the target.

This isnt the first vulnerability of this kind to be discovered in a supposedly secure messaging app. Last year, Argentinian security researcher Ivan Ariel Barrera Oro wrote about a flaw in Signal, an app favored by Edward Snowden. In that case, a hacker could send a specially crafted internet address in a Signal message and it would download the malware.

Its important to realize, however, that spyware that can install itself without any action on the users part can arrive through any channel, be it an encrypted messenger, a browser, an email or SMS client with an undiscovered vulnerability allowing such an attack.

These are merely applications running on top of an operating system, and once a piece of malware gets into the latter it can control the device in a multitude of ways. With a keylogger, a hacker can see only one side of a conversation. Add the ability to capture a users screen, and they can see the full discussion regardless of what security precautions are built into the app you are using.

End-to-end encryption is a marketing device used by companies such as Facebook to lull consumers wary about cyber-surveillance into a false sense of security.Encryption is, of course, necessary, but it's not a fail-safeway to secure communication.

The tug of war between tech firms touting end-to-end encryption as a way to avoid government snooping and state agencies protesting its use is a smokescreen. Government and private hackers are working feverishly on new methods to deploy malware with operating system-wide privileges. Companies such as NSO are at the forefront of this important work, which can help catch terrorists and prevent attacks or imprison dissidents and disrupt revolutions against dictatorial regimes.

The WhatsApp episode is likely to increase the backlash against NSO and the export license it has from the Israeli government to sell Pegasus. But if this particular firm stops developing the malware, others will take its place.

The hard truth for activists and journalists in need of secure messaging is that the more tech-savvy they are, the safer they can make their digital communications. One can, for example, encrypt messages on a non-networked device before sending them out through ones phone. But even that wouldnt guarantee complete security since responses could be screen-captured.

Truly secure communication is really only possible in the analog world and then all the old-school spycraft applies.

(Updated to clarify uses of end-to-end encryption in eighth paragraph.)

To contact the author of this story: Leonid Bershidsky at lbershidsky@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Edward Evans at eevans3@bloomberg.net

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Leonid Bershidsky is Bloomberg Opinion's Europe columnist. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion website Slon.ru.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion

2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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WhatsApps End-to-End Encryption Is a Gimmick

No, end-to-end encryption isn’t a marketing gimmick

Theres bad takes, and then theres bad takes. An example of the latter comes from Bloomberg Opinion columnist Leonid Bershidsky, who thinks that todays WhatsApp security woes proves that end-to-end encryption is a gimmick and largely pointless.

WhatsApp is one of the largest messaging apps around. To put Bershidskys comments in context, earlier today, it transpired that it was possible to use specially-weaponized phone calls in order to install malware on a targets phone. The Facebook-owned company has since released a patch, which users are encouraged to install at the earliest possible opportunity.

WhatsApp, like many messaging apps, uses end-to-end encryption, which ensures that an intermediary cannot snoop on whats being said. Bershidskys argument, summed up roughly, is that while WhatsApp remains vulnerable to other attacks, end-to-end encryption is nothing short of a marketing device designed to lull consumers wary about cyber-surveillance into a false sense of security.

As far as I can tell, Bershidsky has no formal training in cyber security or computer science. If he did, he probably wouldnt be embarrassing himself in such a public fashion. And indeed, the computer security community is delighting on dunking on him via their preferred medium, Twitter. Its important that his arguments, which are misleading and technically inaccurate, do not go unaddressed.

Firstly, lets address his criticism that the term end-to-end encryption is a marketing device.

It isnt. It just fucking isnt. I dont know what else to say here. Its a technical term with a very precise, universally-accepted definition. That just isnt up for debate.

Bershidskys argument hinges primarily on the fact that applications that use end-to-end encryption are susceptible to other threats, like zero-day flaws and sophisticated Israeli spyware. But the thing is, no credible person has ever argued that end-to-end encryption is a security cure-all. Rather, it addresses two serious security problems.

Firstly, end-to-end encryption prevents an adversary sitting in the middle of a connection from intercepting and analyzing the contents of data packets. If youre sending privileged information across a public Internet, like credit card numbers or customer, youll going to want to ensure they safe from prying eyes. And crucially, it makes it almost impossible to intercept and analyze protected traffic at scale.

The second problem end-to-end encryption solves is that it makes it significantly harder for an adversary to launch session hijacking attacks. If data is being sent in the clear, an attacker sitting on the same network could easily capture cookies and session cookies, allowing them to take over a users account on a website or app, all without the need to log-in.

This isnt hypothetical. Before Facebook introduced SSL-by-default in 2012, ensuring the connection between users and its servers were protected, wresting control of someones account was embarrassingly easy. There was even a Firefox plugin called FireSheep, released in 2010, that made it a one-click process.

Do you need other things than end-to-end encryption to ensure a secure user experience? Absolutely. But is end-to-end encryption a crucial cornerstone of that secure user experience? Hell yes.

Security isnt a single product or app. You cant buy security. It comes from the culmination of lots of efforts, big and small. At the risk of sounding like the narrator in a commercial for Lincoln cars, its a journey, and you never quite get all the way there.

In conclusion, End-to-end encryption is important, and Bershidskys take is moronic. Even though the piece was clearly listed as opinion, Bloomberg should have known better than to publish an argument that was fundamentally misleading, and based on shaky technical grounds.

Read next: Netflix to invade E3 (and it might be bringing new games with it)

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No, end-to-end encryption isn't a marketing gimmick

Sweden reopens rape case against Julian Assange

Swedish prosecutors are to reopen an investigation into a rape allegation against Julian Assange.

The deputy director of public prosecutions, Eva-Marie Persson, announced the decision at a press conference on Monday, saying: I have today taken the decision to reopen the preliminary investigation.

She said the circumstances allowed for an extradition to Sweden from Britain, and an interview with Assange should be conducted.

After reviewing the preliminary investigation carried out so far, I find that there still exist grounds for Julian Assange to be suspected on probable cause of the charge of rape, Persson said. It is my assessment that a new questioning of Assange is required.

With Assange now detained by the UK, the prerequisites for continuing and completing the investigation are now considered to exist, she said.

Prosecutors dropped the investigation in 2017 because they were unable to proceed while the WikiLeaks founder remained in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. They said at the time that the investigation could be reopened if the situation changed. Assange has always denied the allegation.

Assange, 47, was removed from the embassy last month after the Ecuadorian government abruptly withdrew his asylum. Having spent seven years in the building, he was arrested for breach of bail.

A lawyer for one of the women involved in the Swedish allegations subsequently asked for the investigation to be resumed. Assange had also faced an investigation over a second allegation, but this was dropped in 2015 because time had run out. He has denied both allegations.

Immediately after his arrest in April, US authorities made a request for Assanges extradition in a case relating to WikiLeaks release of sensitive military and diplomatic documents. He faces allegations in the US that he conspired with a former intelligence analyst, Chelsea Manning, to download classified databases. The charge against him carries a sentence of up to five years in prison.

Assange is being held in Belmarsh high-security prison in south London after being sentenced to 50 weeks in jail for a bail violation. He appeared by video link at Westminster magistrates court on 2 May to say he did not consent to being extradited to the US. The court heard that the extradition process would take many months and the case was adjourned until 30 May.

Persson said the British authorities would decide whether the Swedish or US extradition request had priority.

The Swedish allegations date back to 2010. Assange unsuccessfully fought in the British courts to have the Swedish extradition order and preliminary investigation dropped. His lawyers said he feared that if he went to Sweden, authorities could have handed him over to the US to face prosecution over the WikiLeaks case.

The lawyer for the woman who had asked for the investigation to be reopened welcomed the decision saying: Today we got great news. It signalled that no-one stands above the law, Elisabeth Massi Fritz, told a new conference.

My client feels great gratitude and she is very hopeful about getting restitution and we both hope that justice will win, she added.

She said Swedish prosecutors would be forced to take steps quickly to ensure that we have time to get a potential criminal charge in this case.

WikiLeaks said the reopening of the Swedish investigation would give Assange a chance to clear his name.

Since Julian Assange was arrested on 11 April 2019 there has been considerable political pressure on Sweden to reopen their investigation, but there has always been political pressure surrounding this case, Kristinn Hrafnsson, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief, said in a statement. Its reopening will give Julian a chance to clear his name.

Hrafnsson criticised the Swedish handling of the case. He said: This case has been mishandled throughout. After the Swedish prosecutor refused to question Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy for years, it was only when forced by Swedish courts that she travelled to London to finally question Assange.

Then Sweden wanted to drop its arrest warrant for Assange as early as 2013. It was the British government that insisted that the case against him continue. Since the investigation was closed in 2017, we have received reports of the destruction of records and correspondence on behalf of UK and Swedish authorities, surely an impediment to a thorough investigation.

Assange was always willing to answer any questions from the Swedish authorities and repeatedly offered to do so, over six years. The widespread media assertion that Assange evaded Swedish questioning is false. This investigation has been dropped before and its reopening will give Julian a chance to clear his name.

Assanges Swedish lawyer, Per Samuelson, told the Swedish broadcaster SVT that he was very surprised by the decision to reopen the case, saying it was embarrassing for Sweden.

Nick Vamos, a former head of extradition at the Crown Prosecution Service, told Reuters news agency that UK extradition proceedings should not take more than 18 months.

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Sweden reopens rape case against Julian Assange

WikiLeak’s Julian Assange: Swedish prosecutors resume rape probe

Sweden renewed its extradition request for Julian Assange as it reopened a rape case against him. The U.S. also wants the WikiLeaks founder extradited. USA TODAY

Prosecutors in Sweden reopened a rape case against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a month after he was forcibly removed from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and after a U.S.extradition requestover computer hacking charges.

The decision complicates U.S. efforts to try Assange for leaking classified documents.

A sexual assault investigation into Assange was dropped two years ago because prosecutors were not able to continue their case while he was holed up in the embassy. It was reopened Monday at the request of one of the alleged victims.

The incident allegedly took place 10 years ago. Assange maintains he is innocent.

As part of the probe, prosecutorsrenewed an extradition request for Assange, raising a competing claim that could frustrate attempts to see him stand trial in the U.S.Itis not clear which extradition request will take priority, saidEva-Marie Persson, Swedens deputy director of public prosecutions, during anews conference inStockholm.

"The outcome of this process is impossible to predict," she said.

Anand Doobay, a London-based lawyer who specializes in extradition law, saidthedecision over what happens to Assange willbe decided in court and it could take months if not years and may ultimately reside with Britain's secretary of state. The statute of limitations on the rape investigation in Sweden runs out in August 2020.

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One of the factors that would beconsidered is if the U.S.'s request is politically motivated and whether Assange wouldface the death penalty or be charged with additional crimes related to hispublication of U.S. military and diplomatic secrets.

The stolen material, according to the U.S. Justice Department,includes90,000 war reports related to Afghanistan, 400,000 from the Iraq War, 800 Guantanamo Bay detainee assessments and 250,000 State Department cables.

Assange believesit was in the public interest to publish them because they reveal the behavior of the U.S. government and how it operates in foreign military adventures.

The U.S. alleges that Assange wasassisted by Chelsea Manning, then a soldier in the U.S. Army, in cracking a password stored on U.S. Department of Defense computers.

Manning served nearly seven years of a 35-year sentence for theft and espionage for helping to deliver classified documents to WikiLeaks. Manning's sentence was later commuted by former President Barack Obama and she was released in 2017.Manning recently spent another 62 days in jail for refusing to testify before a grand jury in connection with the Assange case. Manning could return to jail this week.

Refusesto testify: Chelsea Manning released from jail, expected in court next week

Assange faces up to five years in a U.S. prison if convicted of conspiracy charges.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange speaks to reporters on the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, on May 19 May 2017.(Photo: EPA-EFE)

Assange was arrested last month inside the Ecuador'sEmbassy after the South American country revoked his political asylum. He sought asylum in the embassy in June 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he was wanted for questioning over rape and sexual assault allegations. At the time, Assange's legal team believed that if he were extradited to Sweden he would subsequently be extradited to the U.S. Acase of alleged sexual misconduct was dropped when the statute of limitations expired.

The Australian national, 47, has already started serving a 50-week sentence in a British prison for skipping bail and seeking refuge in Ecuador's Embassy.

"There are significant legal obstacles for the U.S. case," said Daniela Nadj, a professor of law at Queen Mary, University of London, adding that "many questions need to be answered." Among them: If Sweden decides to renew its extradition claim whether a rape allegation should take precedence over a hacking one.

State secrets: Six big leaks from Julian Assange's WikiLeaks over the years

The U.S. extradition hearing began in a London court on May 2.

The next court date related to that case is on May 30.

Kristinn Hrafnsson, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief, said in a statement that the Swedish decision to reopen a rape case against Assange "will give Julian a chance to clear his name."Hrafnsson said that Persson, the Swedish prosecutor,had been under "intense political pressure"to reopen the case. He also said case has been "mishandled."

Elisabeth MassiFritz, a lawyer for the woman accusing Assange of rape, who has notbeen publicly identified, said Monday in a press conference that her client has "demonstrated strength" in deciding to pursue her case after so many years and she hopes that justice will be served before the statute of limitations expires.

Fritz said the decision by Swedish authorities "signals that no one stands above the law"and that "the legal system in Sweden doesnt givespecial treatment to anyone."

She said her client "feels great gratitude."

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WikiLeak's Julian Assange: Swedish prosecutors resume rape probe

Julian Assange rape case to be reopened in Sweden setting up …

Stockholm -- Swedish prosecutors said Monday they are reopening a rape case against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a month after he was removed from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. They said they will seek his extradition after he has served his 50-week prison term in Britain for jumping bail.

The Swedish move may leave British authorities to decide whether to extradite Assange to Sweden or to the United States, where he is wanted separately for allegedly hacking into a Pentagon computer.

Eva-Marie Persson, Sweden's deputy director of public prosecutions, told a news conference in Stockholm that "there is still a probable cause to suspect that Assange committed a rape." She added: "It is my assessment that a new questioning of Assange is required."

Swedish prosecutors filed preliminary charges -- a step short of formal charges -- against Assange after he visited the country in 2010, following complaints from two Swedish women who said they were the victims of sex crimes committed by Assange.

A case of alleged sexual misconduct was dropped in 2017 when the statute of limitations expired. That left a rape allegation, but officials couldn't pursue it because Assange was living at the embassy and there was no prospect of bringing him to Sweden.

The statute of limitations on that case expires in August 2020. Assange has denied wrongdoing, asserting that they were politically motivated and that the sex was consensual.

Persson said a European arrest warrant will be issued for Assange.

The 47-year-old Australian met the women in connection with a lecture in August 2010 in Stockholm. One was involved in organizing an event for Sweden's center-left Social Democratic Party and offered to host Assange at her apartment. The other was in the audience.

A police officer who heard the women's accounts decided there was reason to suspect they were victims of sex crimes and handed the case to a prosecutor.

Neither of the alleged victims has been named publicly.

A lawyer representing one of the women called the prosecutor's decision to reopen the case "very gratifying" on Monday, and said she and her clients hoped justice could be served, noting that prosecutors would need to move quickly in light of statute of limitations expiring next year.

Julian Assange's Swedish lawyer Per E. Samuelsen told Swedish broadcaster SVT on Monday he was "very surprised" by the decision to reopen the case.

"I do not understand the Swedish prosecutor's ... reasoning for reopening a 10-year old case," he said.

WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hraffnson said Monday that Sweden's "investigation has been dropped before and its reopening will give Julian a chance to clear his name." Hrafnsson argued that the "case has been mishandled throughout," and claimed there had "always been political pressure surrounding" it.

Assange left Sweden for Britain in September 2010. In November that year, a Stockholm court approved a request to detain Assange for questioning.

The Australian secret-spiller took refuge at the Ecuadorian Embassy in June 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden, claiming he feared it would lead to extradition to the U.S.

After almost seven years holed up in the building he was arrested by British police April 11 after Ecuador revoked his political asylum, accusing him of everything from meddling in the nation's foreign affairs to poor hygiene.

Assange faces a maximum of four years in prison in Sweden.

He is currently in London's Belmarsh Prison serving a 50-week sentence for jumping bail in 2012. He is also being held on a U.S. extradition warrant for allegedly hacking into a Pentagon computer in conjunction with former U.S. intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.

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Julian Assange rape case to be reopened in Sweden setting up ...

NSA Spying Violated The Constitution – Business Insider

Broken glass covers an armed forces recruiting poster at the scene of an explosion outside the U.S. Armed Forces Career Center in New York's Times Square, March 6, 2008. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

It's becoming increasingly difficult to give the government the benefit of the doubt in regards to dragnet domestic surveillance.

Even before Glenn Greenwald published a top secret court order compelling Verizon to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems and interviewed NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, there were credible reports that the NSA was intercepting U.S. communications.

The most significant of those occurred in July,whenthe court that was establishedto "hear applications for and grant orders approving electronic surveillance," called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC),found thatthe NSA violated the Fourth Amendment's restriction against unreasonable searches and seizures "on at least one occasion."

Here's the letter from Senator Ron Wyden:

" on at least one occasion the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court held that some collection carried out pursuant to section 702 minimization procedures used by the government was unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment."

We don't know the details of the classified order, but it's clear that it's a very importantaspect of the domestic spying apparatus that even the court overseeing the program found it straying into illegal territory.

Here's the relevant text of the amendment:

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

So in violating that law, the NSA isviolating the constitutional right to privacy provided to Americans.

Here's a rundown of the other reports that corroborate Snowden's claims:

Individually, each one of those claims is both stunning and damning. Taken together, they suggest that America is a full-blown surveillance state where the government has decided to violate the fundamental rights of its citizens.

The rest is here:
NSA Spying Violated The Constitution - Business Insider