Ecuador envoy to Sweden briefed on Assange (AFP via Emirates 247)

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AFP
Published Sunday, June 24, 2012

Ecuador's ambassador in Stockholm has been briefed by Swedish officials on the country's judicial system, as Quito mulls whether to offer WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange asylum, the justice ministry said on Sunday.

"Two civil servants told him how the Swedish judicial system works and how the European arrest warrant system works," Anna Erhardt, a spokeswoman for Justice Minister Beatrice Ask, told AFP ...

The Swedish prosecution authority has stressed it will be bound by the so-called "principle of specialty," meaning it cannot try Assange for any crimes other than those stated in the European arrest warrant.

It also has also said it cannot legally send him to the United States without an official request from Washington, something it says it has not received, and without permission from Britain, the original surrendering country.

http://www.emirates247.com/news/world/ecuador-envoy-to-sweden-briefed-on-assange-2012-06-24-1.464330

Briefing was Thursday per link

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1. DU rec...nt

Sid

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2. The UK, Sweden and the US

Vs. Ecuador: from the State Department's Human Rights Report

The main human rights abuses were use of excessive force by public security forces, restrictions on freedom of speech and press, and official corruption. President Correa and his administration continued verbal and legal attacks against the media and increasingly used legal mechanisms such as libel laws to suppress freedom of expression. Corruption was endemic, especially in the judicial sector, and officials engaged in corrupt practices with impunity.

The following human rights problems continued: isolated unlawful killings, poor prison conditions, arbitrary arrest and detention, corruption and other abuses by security forces, a high number of pretrial detainees, and corruption and denial of due process within the judicial system. Societal problems continued, including: physical aggression against journalists; violence against women; discrimination against women, indigenous persons, Afro-Ecuadorians, and persons based on their sexual orientation; trafficking in persons and sexual exploitation of minors; and child labor.

The government sometimes took steps to prosecute or punish officials in the security services and elsewhere in government who committed abuses, although political influence and a dysfunctional judiciary resulted in impunity in some cases.

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3. Thanks.