We’ve learned to expect the unexpected in the case of Julian Assange: his case always seems to throw up one more unusual legal twist. Which is astonishing in what is, in reality, a straightforward case of a proper and lawful European Arrest Warrant.
Assuming Assange’s bail conditions remained similar to those initially imposed, he must have breached his bail conditions by failing regularly to report to a police station in the last few days, and by not staying overnight at an address agreed with prosecutors. That breach of bail conditions is what renders him liable to immediate arrest.
I’m not sure that the breach makes those who stood surety for him liable to forfeit the money they offered. Their role is to guarantee his turning up at his next court or extradition appointment, rather than to vouch for his sticking by all his bail conditions.
But Assange is safe from arrest inside the Ecuadorian embassy because of a different Vienna Convention – this time the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. It’s clear, then, that Assange cannot be arrested so long as the Ecuadorians protect him inside their embassy. It is worth noting though that the Ecuadorians could, if they wanted to, invite the police in to make their arrest.
Julian Assange is now at the mercy of Ecuador.
But it doesn’t follow that refugee status in itself would give Assange any sort of right to leave the UK unmolested. The real legal question is whether there’s any legal way Assange can bring himself within some sort of legal immunity from arrest so as to enable him to get out of the embassy and on a flight to Quito.
So – can he?.....read more
Assuming Assange’s bail conditions remained similar to those initially imposed, he must have breached his bail conditions by failing regularly to report to a police station in the last few days, and by not staying overnight at an address agreed with prosecutors. That breach of bail conditions is what renders him liable to immediate arrest.
I’m not sure that the breach makes those who stood surety for him liable to forfeit the money they offered. Their role is to guarantee his turning up at his next court or extradition appointment, rather than to vouch for his sticking by all his bail conditions.
But Assange is safe from arrest inside the Ecuadorian embassy because of a different Vienna Convention – this time the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. It’s clear, then, that Assange cannot be arrested so long as the Ecuadorians protect him inside their embassy. It is worth noting though that the Ecuadorians could, if they wanted to, invite the police in to make their arrest.
Julian Assange is now at the mercy of Ecuador.
But it doesn’t follow that refugee status in itself would give Assange any sort of right to leave the UK unmolested. The real legal question is whether there’s any legal way Assange can bring himself within some sort of legal immunity from arrest so as to enable him to get out of the embassy and on a flight to Quito.
So – can he?.....read more
http://liberalconspiracy.org/2012/06/26/here-are-the-ways-julian-assange-could-escape-from-britain/
