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I know Assange's supporters say he was frightened the Americans would somehow kidnap him, with Swedish connivance, and spirit him off to Gitmo, in complete contravention of its extradition treaties with both Sweden and the UK, but he never actually tried to argue this in court, and present evidence to show his fears were well-founded and not just an excuse to avoid facing justice in Sweden, so the courts couldn't consider the point.
If he had any persuasive evidence, that would have been a bar to extradition, but without it, the unsupported claim "I was frightened I might be kidnapped by a foreign power" isn't much of an excuse for failing to surrender to bail.
The first main hearing on the US extradition request, postponed from May because of Covid-19, is scheduled for early September.
Whoever wins, it'll go to appeal, possibly all the way up to the Supreme Court or the ECHR, but from what I read, the Human Rights Act presents several pretty enormous obstacles to the US request, so I expect -- and very much hope -- that, at the end of the appeals process, the application will be refused and he will be released from custody and be deported back to Australia, where he can begin to enjoy his new-found liberty several years later than would have been the case had he surrender to his bail and faced trial in Sweden (where I suspect the prosecution would have found it difficult to make the case to the criminal standard, but even if he had been convicted, he'd have been out well before 2019).
If he had any persuasive evidence, that would have been a bar to extradition, but without it, the unsupported claim "I was frightened I might be kidnapped by a foreign power" isn't much of an excuse for failing to surrender to bail.
The first main hearing on the US extradition request, postponed from May because of Covid-19, is scheduled for early September.
Whoever wins, it'll go to appeal, possibly all the way up to the Supreme Court or the ECHR, but from what I read, the Human Rights Act presents several pretty enormous obstacles to the US request, so I expect -- and very much hope -- that, at the end of the appeals process, the application will be refused and he will be released from custody and be deported back to Australia, where he can begin to enjoy his new-found liberty several years later than would have been the case had he surrender to his bail and faced trial in Sweden (where I suspect the prosecution would have found it difficult to make the case to the criminal standard, but even if he had been convicted, he'd have been out well before 2019).