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Comment by cmdkeen | Hacker News Reader

And they did when the time bar was about to approach. At that point Ecuador conveniently starts causing problems, quite why the Swedes would lie about Ecuador's demands when they could have just waited for the time bar to expire doesn't get explained.

Prior to that they were dealing with an obstructive, bail jumping individual thumbing their nose at the legal systems of two countries (the UK and Sweden). Assange appealed extradition all the way to the UK Supreme Court then decided he didn't like the outcome, quite why the responsibility is on Sweden to cave to his demands has yet to be explained.

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It is fairly clear that there is an ongoing US investigation into Wikileaks and Assange.

Whilst this is ongoing, there would be risk of US extradition requests were he to leave the embassy (to Sweden or elsewhere). His best strategy is therefore to stay in the embassy for now.

> His best strategy is therefore to stay in the embassy for now.

Of course his best strategy is to avoid prosecution. That should mean we condemn him as a hypocrite, instead he has actual supporters blaming the victims!

The alleged victims are claiming no rape took place and that the police completely misinterpreted what they said, and later got railroaded by them.

The initial prosecutor dropped the charges, but another prosecutor with a political background and a radical stance on what should be considered rape appealed that decision and got herself appointed to the case. She then declined multiple requests to schedule another interview with Assange (both in-person and via phone/video conference, which Swedish law allows).

I don't understand how anyone could claim, with the facts we now know, that this case has any merit at all and is more than a politically motivated smear campaign.

Except the Swedish appeal courts have had several opportunities to review the warrant, and whilst they have reduced the severity of the allegations in 2010 they upheld it. Again in 2014 Assange went to the Swedish courts to try and get the warrant overturned and failed.

So the Swedish courts certainly don't agree that this is a case without merit.

I never claimed otherwise, and while that is factually correct, it doesn't mean any of the other things mentioned are suddenly not true. I think the fact that they reduced the severity of the allegations and even went as far as criticizing the prosecutors for not moving the investigation forward in years is quite telling as well. And while the court's decision might be legally relevant, given all the other facts and seeing how the prosecutor behaves makes it quite clear this is nothing more than a smear campaign.

I'm usually the last person to fall for any kind of conspiracy theory, but this case could literally be taken straight from one of Kafka's books. Given all the things we know about this case, and things that went on during the peak of Snowden's story (presidential planes forced to land, among others), it would be naive to think this is not politically orchestrated, and arguing on technicalities plays right into their hands.

Ecuadorian embassy invited Swedish prosecutors in 2012 for the first time. Yet Sweden has not replied for nearly a year - maybe Ecuador is not playing fair,but Sweden is not exactly trying.

What you wanted to say: "Sweden claims Ecuador starts causing ... "

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