Open Letter To The Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard Re Julian Assange

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http://wlcentral.org/node/1175

2011-02-02 Open Letter To The Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard Re Julian Assange.

Submitted by Peter Kemp on Wed, 02/02/2011 - 04:23

Dear Prime Minister

The world notes again your comments on Julian Assange reported in the Sydney Morning Herald, February 2nd 2011.

It is pleasing that you would welcome him back to Australia but your statement that the government cannot do anything to assist him in that regard is not strictly correct and springs from a factual error in you saying “They are charges and they've got to be worked through proper process.” Prime Minister, in brief these are the relevant facts and applicable law:

1) Mr Assange has not ever been charged by Sweden or anybody else.
2) The Swedish authorities have initiated an extradition process which is contrary to the European Arrest Warrant (“EAW”) system in that they want him back in Sweden for the purposes of investigation, not explicitly to charge him.
3) The EAW is a fast track extradition process between EU member states brought into effect to allow decisions to be made between EU judicial systems, not between politicians.

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Note Prime Minister, that UK explanatory document above extracted from EAW law says criminal prosecution, not criminal investigation, and you may recall that in Australian law, and in many other parts of the world, police can only hold a suspect for a limited time (eg NSW four hours plus timemouts) for the purposes of investigation only.

Extradition for the stated purpose of investigation only is not only an abuse of the EAW system, it is also an abuse of Mr Assange’s human rights and brings in an arguable political dimension to the prosecution itself, contrary to the EAW’s legal prohibitions.

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Yours Faithfully
Peter H Kemp
Solicitor of the Supreme Court of NSW.

The Prime Minister can be contacted here:
http://www.pm.gov.au/contact-your-pm

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