THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has criticised the European arrest warrant system after a judge ruled he should be extradited to Sweden to face sex offence charges.
The 39-year-old Australian is accused of sexually assaulting one woman and raping another during a week-long visit to Stockholm in August.
Speaking outside Belmarsh Magistrates' Court in south-east London today following the ruling, he said he had ''always known'' he would have to appeal against the decision.
The ruling against him came as a result of "a European arrest warrant system run amok", he claimed.
He said: "There was no consideration during this entire process as to the merit of the allegations made against me, no consideration or examination of even the complaints made in Sweden and of course we have always known we would appeal."
Launching into a criticism of the system, he said 95% of European arrest warrants were successful and he welcomed a pending review of UK extradition procedures due in June.
This, he hoped, would "deal with some of those abuses of European arrest warrants in law and for abuses relating to other countries such as the United States".
He also reiterated his wish that his own case be used to shed light on "abuses" of the system. >>> | Thursday, February 24, 2011
