The US isn't getting him for anything. The US has filed no charges against him. He is wanted by Sweden to answer questions regarding rape allegations and not regarding any charges in the US.
His claim that the rape allegations are a setup by the US make little sense. If the US were to set him up in order to have him extradited from another country Sweden would be far down the list of countries to chose. The terms of Sweden's extradition laws and previous court rulings on extradition cases make it very unlikely the US would be successful in extraditing him.
His behavior strikes me more as that of someone guilty and desperate to avoid punishment. Maybe I am wrong but he could have cleared the whole thing up long ago by returning to Sweden.
I don't think there was an extradition request from the US, was there? Only one from Sweden. And it's very unlikely that Sweden would extradite him to the US for this. They value the free press, but take rape very seriously.
The reason the US is commonly brought into this is because of misunderstanding of the circumstances and general suspicion.
First off, sexual assault and rape laws are very different in Sweden, and the crimes he has allegedly committed wouldn't be translated as assault or rape in most countries. Though that doesn't necessarily mean he didn't do something bad to someone that requires legal recourse; what currently stands are accusations of crime under Sweden's legal code.
More importantly, suspicion arises because the Swedish prosecutor's office initially withdrew the rape charge and warrant for Assange's arrest, and weeks later the charge was brought back. Some time after that, a European arrest warrant was issued. Some are suspicious that this was due to pressure from the US government, as they would like to see Assange in prison, but I'm not going to give my opinion.
Also, Assange has yet to be charged. I'm not sure how this works in Sweden, but it seems in this case that they don't want to charge Assange until after a second round of questioning. That is what the extradition is for.
His specific claim was that the Swedish rape charges were a cover so that Sweden could extradite him to the US. He still hasn't been extradited by Sweden. I wonder if he wouldn't have been better of going to Sweden.
US war deserters have taken refuge in Sweden ever since Vietnam. So far none of them has been extradited.
So why Sweden? If the US wanted him extradited, it would be far easier to do it from the UK.
I think it is better to look for a more likely explanation. Perhaps it is not more complicated than it seems on the surface. Some strange things happened between him and two girls, we don't know what's true there, and when they finally got around to question him he had already left the country. Assange either saw the opportunity to make a PR coup out of it, or he was genuinely paranoid (in which case I wouldn't blame him). So here we are in a stalemate with no easy way out.
Also do note that it's not altogether fair to call this "rape allegations". It is the lesser form of the crime and would be better translated to sexual misconduct, or something like that (IANAL).
Wasn’t there a way for Sweden to promise him not to extradite him to the US?
I’ve heard he wasn’t even heard by Swedish justice, even though he offered to be heard remotely (from England), and such a thing was done in similar cases.
Solving one or the other would have showed with much more certainty whether he was actually trying to flee the sexual charges or not. Though perhaps the Swedish prosecutor just wanted to maximise the chances of having him in Swedish custody.
He's invited the Swedish prosecutor to him for years, they've declined. The US obviously want him extradited from Sweden, prior to any of this wikileaks exposed Sweden as a covert member of NATO and it's a pretty real threat. Also he hasn't been charged, much less convicted, so 'rapist' is obviously wrong.
You mean it was just a pretext to exfiltrate him to the US, and that Sweden does not in fact have a long national track record of pursuing rapists across international boundaries without prejudice, using the full arsenal of state power?
From that link: "the Swedish authorities have never explained why they refuse to give Assange a guarantee that they will not extradite him on to the US under a secret arrangement agreed between Stockholm and Washington."
Weeeell, maybe because Sweden is a democracy and has no "authorities" that can guarantee the outcome of hypothetical future legal proceedings.
Also, note that Assange was obviously in Sweden when the rape allegedly happened, and only became conveniently afraid of extraditiom to US after those allegations surfaced.
The allegation in the indictment claims otherwise, hence the indictment and extradition request. Then there’s the rape issue in Sweden, although I really have no idea how that will stand up if it’s reopened. Still, answering those questions f fact are why courts exist.
It never became a top priority for the Swedish state. But since he fled to the Ecuadorian embassy the investigation just dragged on. This was never a high priority case other than for the press. And as soon as he could be inteterogated the investigation was closed.
He is and has been mistreated in may ways, but the accusations of sexual assault in Sweden was not part of some US lead conspiracy against him.
So you believe the rape accusations are valid? If you think that it is not politically motivated or that Sweden will not hand him over to the US as soon as they get him, you must be incredibly naive.
That doesn't make sense because he was walking around freely in Sweden and was not afraid of being extradited before the rape allegations. If the US wanted to, they could have asked any allied or friendly nation to arrest and extradite him many years earlier.
IIRC he hasn't even been charged with anything yet. They are still at the "we would like him to help with our inquiries" stage officially.
There are provisions in place between us and Sweden for relevant interviews to be done by video phone, by their police visiting, or by proxy (with our police handling the interview). Apparently all such options have been offered and refused.
If this were just about the rape case, there would be no such effort to retrieve him physically until charges were officially recorded.
Even if the general conspiracy theory is complete hogswash, there is definitely something extra to be considered here. The rape allegations and the way he has been pursued have become two separate matters because the way he has been pursued is significantly disproportionate to how such a case would normally progress. Whether he did it or not (and if he did significant punishment should be served) the authorities still have questions to answer as to why they are pushing in an unusual manner.
Moment US raised its charges, the Sweden rape case is nowhere to be found.
Not to mention, Assanage agreed to that investigation if they could guarantee not to be extradited to US.
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