#Stand4JA

We've been so busy sifting through the ashes that too few of us have noticed what's been staring us in the face all along.

Let's change that.

The myth that became Russiagate was seven years in the making.

Stockholm District Court
Department 1
B 12885-10: Åklagaren ./. Julian Assange

A. MOTION
1. Julian Assange moves that the warrant be immediately withdrawn.

Natalie Buske Thomas is an artist and author, and composed this stunning video set to music by Kevin MacLeod. Art prints of her oil painting are available here.

Further WikiLeaks gear can be purchased through the WikiLeaks Shop. Follow WikiLeaks Art Force on Twitter.

Visit and support Natalie Buske Thomas at nataliebuskethomas.com.

Marianne Ny's office today reported that they have received, from the Republic of Ecuador, the written report of their interview with Julian Assange from November last year. The report, in the Spanish language, shall now be translated into a language more suitable for Marianne Ny.

Reprinted from Rixstep.

So Julian Assange finally got to submit his statement to the elusive Marianne Ny. Things rolled pretty fast there for a while - it took only 74 months. But now it's been done.

30 November 2016: Today, the United Nations rejected the United Kingdom’s attempt to appeal the UN’s February ruling in favour of Julian Assange.

The decision of 5 February 2016 therefore stands, and the UK and Sweden are once again required to immediately put an end to Mr Assange’s arbitrary detention and afford him monetary compensation.

Earlier this year, the United Nations concluded the 16 month long case to which the UK was a party. The UK lost, appealed, and today - lost again. The UN instructed the UK and Sweden to take immediate steps to ensure Mr Assange's liberty, protection, and enjoyment of fundamental human rights. No steps have been taken, jeopardising Mr Assange's life, health and physical integrity, and undermining the UN system of human rights protection.

Despite initially being given two weeks to appeal the 5 February ruling, the United Kingdom waited until after the first appeal period expired, and instead submitted an appeal for review on 24 March, which the United Nations now found inadmissable.

As a member of the United Nations Security Council and the United Nations Human Rights Council, the United Kingdom must now respect its commitments.

From the UN press release:

The UN expert group also considered four requests for review of previous opinions, submitted by the Arab Republic of Egypt, the State of Kuwait and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Working Group concluded that the requests did not meet the threshold of a review as enshrined in paragraph 21 of its methods of work, and that they were thus not admissible.

Reactions in Sweden

At time of writing, there is no response from the website of Marianne Ny or from the prosecution authority's Twitter account, and no mention whatsoever in Swedish media.

Today, 3 July 2016, on the birthday of the greatest truth-teller of our times, it might be appropriate to congratulate and celebrate with Julian Assange (and his friends and his cat).

But is is also appropriate to review the persecution he has endured now for so many years. And no one is more suited to that task than the United Nations, as per their ruling from 4 December 2015.

Their description of the conditions of Julian Assange's persecution unequivocally places the Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny in a category solely her own, forever displacing Claes Borgström as the country's (perhaps the world's) most incompetent (and most heinous) jurist ever.

'Those two weeks were so far the worst in my life. Because I was heartbroken, I was afraid, I was worried, I did not know what lay ahead.'
- Andreas Nygren, today with an NGO helping minors in detention
'I'd very much prefer to be locked up with rats and bad food.'
- Göran, in pretrial detention for 850 days with no access to the outside world

Transcript: Göran sat in pretrial detention for 850 days - criticism of Sweden's record-long detentions is growing
Source: http://sverigesradio.se/sida/avsnitt/392059?programid=4702
Program: In the Name of the Law
Radio channel: Swedish State Radio (sverigesradio.se)
Broadcast date: 6 July 2014
Original language: Swedish
Length: 29:32

Per E Samuelson and Thomas Olsson write to SvD.

That a prosecutor can continue a preliminary investigation for four years and not question the suspect violates the demand for expediency. This is a strong reason to rescind the warrant against Julian Assange, write his lawyers.

Our client Julian Assange has been arrested in his absence for almost four years. He's spent the past two years at the Ecuador embassy in London, protected by political asylum. The London police guard the building day and night, but they can't enter the building. We have, time and again, demanded that the prosecutor [Marianne Ny] travel to London to question Assange. She refuses.

We've asked the Stockholm district court to rescind the warrant to break the deadlock. That would force the prosecutor to think differently. The matter will be dealt with in court 16 July.

What: Solidarity Vigil in Support of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks
When: Thursday 19 June 2014 6-8pm
Where: Ecuadorian Embassy in London, No 3 Hans Crescent, Knightsbridge

Friday 28 March. The Ecuadorean Embassy in London. Behind him: a green screen, in front of which he films for Skype and the social networks. Threatened by the United States, the founder of WikiLeaks has been confined for two years to a room at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. He was visited by Eva Joly who is working on breaking the deadlock.

Late on Wednesday evening 15 August 2012, the Metropolitan police surrounded the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. This followed the publication by the Ecuadorean government of the aide memoir from William Hague, the British Foreign Secretary, on how the diplomatic status of their London embassy could be revoked.

Observers assumed that the arrival of the police must be the presage to a raid. For those watching the unfolding events, in the end it all turned out to be an anticlimax. Though the outcome could have turned out very differently had it had not been for the interventions of certain cyber warriors - in the UK, Australia and elsewhere - whose quick-wittedness may have ensured that a major international incident was averted.

Retired Swedish district prosecutor Rolf Hillegren wrote a powerful op-ed for conservative daily SvD (Svenska Dagbladet) asking for the Assange case to be closed.

In an exclusive for the Sydney Morning Herald, Geoffrey Robertson has provided, from his new book published this week, an excerpt dealing with the "case" against Julian Assange.

This might be the most complete and most accurate summation yet.

Statement by Julian Assange after One Year in Ecuadorian Embassy

Saturday June 22nd, 15:00 GMT

It has now been a year since I entered this embassy and sought refuge from persecution.

As a result of that decision, I have been able to work in relative safety from a US espionage investigation.

But today, Edward Snowden's ordeal is just beginning.

Thank you for this honor.

I am very happy to be sharing it with Noam Chomsky whose generosity and strength of character I have felt personally. Noam, you are the sea--relentless and enduring. You have crashed wave after wave of understanding into towering cliffs of lies, eroding them at their base. If the rotten foreshore of empire collapses it will be for this reason. You have inspired and continue to inspire many, including me.

Thank you to the people in this room for supporting this award. I'm going to thank you and Dan in the best way I know. By keeping this speech short. Then you can go and do the important thing. Make alliances to fight for WikiLeaks, Bradley Manning and me. Don't think you can escape just because I am not there. We have a lot more spies in this room than the FBI.

On 3 February 2013 at a private dinner at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, attended by more than 150 guests, Julian Assange will receive the Yoko Ono Lennon Courage Award for the Arts 2013 for his WikiLeaks work including, amongst other releases, Collateral Murder. This award is given to people who have displayed extraordinary courage and who through their artistry have changed the world.