Ecuador, Sweden Sign Deal Facilitating Assange’s Interrogation

December 11, 2015 By administrator

Ecuador and Sweden have sealed an agreement on legal assistance in criminal affairs, which noticeably facilitates the interrogation of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry said Friday.

MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) – “The agreement, without any doubt, is a tool that strengthens bilateral relations and facilitates, for example, the execution of such legal actions as the questioning of Mr. Assange, isolated in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London,” the ministry said in a statement.

The countries have been negotiating on this document since summer 2015 following the request of the Swedish authorities to the Ecuadorian Prosecutor’s Office on Assange’s questioning in the Embassy of Ecuador in the United Kingdom, where he was granted asylum.

Assange is wanted for questioning by Swedish authorities since 2010 on accusations of sexual coercion and rape. In April, he consented to the prosecutor’s conditions for the interrogation procedure.

The WikiLeaks founder argues that Sweden’s rape charges are a ploy to extradite him to the United States, where he is wanted for publishing thousands of leaked top-secret military documents and diplomatic cables.

Assange, an Australian national, launched the WikiLeaks website in 2006. Since then, the site has released millions of classified papers.

Source: sputniknews.com

Sweden and Ecuador to begin Julian Assange talks next week

August 28, 2015 By administrator

Julian Assange in August 2014. Photograph: Reuters

Sweden will begin talks with Ecuador about Julian Assange on Monday, after Stockholm moved to break the deadlock over five-year-old rape allegations against him.

Sweden initially rejected a demand by Ecuador that the two countries establish a formal agreement on judicial cooperation before Swedish prosecutors could interrogate the WikiLeaks founder in Ecuador’s embassy in London, saying it did not negotiate bilateral treaties.

But this month the government agreed to talks specifically to address the stalemate over Assange, who claimed asylum in the embassy in 2012.

Two women made allegations against Assange five years ago in Stockholm, but no charges were brought because the prosecutor said she was unable to interrogate him. Assange says he had no choice but to seek asylum as Sweden declined to guarantee that he would not be extradited to the US to face espionage charges if he travelled to Stockholm.

The political intervention by Sweden marks a new development in the case. Swedish politicians have, with very few exceptions, insisted they must not interfere, saying it is a purely judicial matter.

“We have agreed to what the Ecuadorians asked for,” said Cecilia Riddselius, the Swedish justice ministry official responsible for the case. “It was a political decision to have this discussion.

“Normally ministers cannot interfere in individual cases, it is part of our legal system, this is a strict rule. At the same time, it is under the competence of the government to enter into agreements with other states. A decision was taken to actually raise it to the level of the cabinet.”

Riddselius said the state secretary, Anne Linde, would open the negotiations on Monday on behalf of the justice ministry. The justice ministry’s director general for international affairs, Anna-Karin Svensson, the foreign ministry’s director general for legal affairs, Anders Rönquist, and Riddselius herself would also be involved. She said Ecuador’s under-secretary of state Férnando Yepez Lasso would lead the talks for Ecuador.

Ecuador’s embassy in Stockholm declined to comment, but said the makeup of its delegation was still being discussed.

“We do not normally enter into bilateral agreements and encourage states to enter multilateral ones instead,” Riddselius said. “But considering this specific case and our willingness to move the case forward, we are open to discuss this. It will be a general agreement but we hope it will be applicable to the Assange case.”

Sexual assault accusations against Assange, who has not been formally charged with any crime, expired this month under Sweden’s statute of limitations. In March Swedish prosecutors had pledged to interrogate Assange in London while the allegations were still current.

Assange condemned the “incompetence” of Swedish authorities in failing to meet this deadline after he consistently demanded that prosecutors interview him in London so he could protest his innocence. The outstanding rape allegation can be prosecuted until August 2020.

The UK accuses Ecuador of preventing the proper course of justice by granting Assange asylum in London and is frustrated at the mounting costs of policing the embassy.

As recently as July, Sweden turned down a request from the UN to consider a guarantee that political refugees wanted for questioning would not face extradition to a third country.

Riddselius said that in her 20 years at the justice ministry she had never encountered a bilateral agreement of the kind that would be negotiated on Monday. “It is new ground, very unusual, it is something we try to avoid,” she said.

The negotiations would be complex, she said, and it was impossible to say how long they might take. She said Sweden had drafted an agreement and respected Ecuador’s need to examine it thoroughly and propose changes.

Source: The Guardian

Swedish McDonald’s shut after spate of illness

August 17, 2015 By administrator

A McDonald’s restaurant in Nödinge, in Ale municipality in Västra Götaland, has been forced to close, after 30 cases of severe illness were reported to the authorities, Thelocal.se reported.

Carita Sandro, Head of Environment at Ale municipality, said that there had been more than two dozen complaints of illness occurring after visits to the restaurant.

“We received several reports of gastroenteritis and diarrhea. Many of them were really bad and we quickly realized that it was because the sufferers had eaten at McDonalds in Nödinge. We contacted the restaurant and they chose to close the restaurant while they investigated the issue.”

“The only thing we could do was to close,” Jörgen Hansson, the restaurant’s owner added in an interview with Swedish newspaper, Expressen.

One McDonald’s customer told Expressen: “I was there on Monday and ate a Chicken McWrap. Several people in my area have been affected, and they ate different things. I have had vomiting, dizziness, diarrhoea and fever – I was sick for twelve hours.”

It’s the second time this summer that the restaurant has had problems. In July six people became ill after eating Grand Big Macs. An investigation concluded that that outbreak was caused by poor staff hygiene.

On the latest occasion there it is thought that the outbreak of illness was caused by a staff member unwittingly carrying a winter vomiting virus.

Source: Panorama.am

Swedish prosecutors drop Assange sexual assault probe

August 13, 2015 By administrator

Swedish prosecutors said on Thursday they had dropped a sexual assault probe against Julian Assange because the time limit on the case had expired, AFP reported.

Some of the allegations against the WikiLeaks founder — who has been holed up at Ecuador’s London embassy since 2012 to avoid extradition — have reached their statute of limitations after five years. “Now that the statue of limitations has expired on certain offences, I am obliged to drop part of the investigation,” prosecutor Marianne Ny said, adding she still wanted to question the Australian on a more serious rape claim.

Örebro: Armenian Genocide monument unveiled in Sweden

May 30, 2015 By administrator

A monument dedicated to the Armenian Genocide victims was unveiled in the city of Örebro, Sweden, on May 29, the press service of Armenian Foreign Ministry reports.

This is the first Armenian Genocide monument in Sweden. It was opened by the municipal authorities on the initiative of the commission on the coordination of Armenian Genocide centenary events. The words “We will never forget” are inscribed on the monument in Armenian, Aramaic, Greek and Swedish.

Representatives of state and municipal authorities, diplomats, journalists, and members of Armenian and Assyrian communities were present at the ceremony.

Armenian Ambassador to Sweden Artak Apitonyan in his remarks stressed the significance of opening such monuments and expressed hope that the process of recognition that has started in the Turkish society will become stronger and it is not far away when Turkey’s representative will make a speech during an event commemorating the first genocide of the 20th century.

Source: Panorama.a

SWEDEN WINS 2015 EUROVISION SONG CONTEST

May 23, 2015 By administrator

as millions watch Måns Zelmerlöw take the coveted trophy!

Vienna, AustriaIt was an exciting evening at the Wiener Stadthalle where in front of thousands of people in the arena and millions of people on TV, Måns Zelmerlöw from Sweden won the 2015 edition of Europe’s Favourite TV Show with the song Heroes!

What an evening it has been!! 27 wonderful acts sang their hearts out on stage, competing for the ultimate prize; the title of winner of the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest.

However, there could be just one winner and that was Måns Zelmerlöw from Sweden who stormed to victory with points!

Sweden’s Left Party proposes to include materials on Armenian Genocide in school textbooks

May 15, 2015 By administrator

Sweden’s Left Party has initiated the inclusion of materials on the 1915 Armenian Genocide and the Genocide of Assyrians and Pontic Greeks into the school textbooks, said Hans Linde, a Foreign Affairs spokesperson for the Left Party, Horizon Weekly reports.

Linde said that in order to prevent new genocides, it is necessary to recognize the past genocides and tell the wide masses about these crimes.

The Swedish parliament recognized the Armenian Genocide on March 11, 2010.

Documentary Film on the Assyrian Genocide Shown in Sweden

May 12, 2015 By administrator

By Bar Daisan, AINA News

Sodertalje, Sweden (AINA) — A documentary film on the Turkish genocide of Assyrians in World War One premiered yesterday in the city of Sodertalje, 36 kilometers south of Stockholm. The documentary, titled Seyfo 1915 – The Assyrian Genocide was directed by Assyrian filmmaker Aziz Said, who lives in Berlin. The film was produced by the Assyrian Federation of Sweden. Nearly 600 people attended the premiere.

The documentary tells the story of the genocide perpetrated by the late Ottoman government against the Assyrians, Greeks and Armenians — the Christian population of Turkey.

“Many of those who came to see the movie are people who themselves have lost relatives who were murdered a hundred years ago,” said Afram Yacoub, the President of the Assyrian Federation in Sweden.

The story of the film starts in Sweden. A Sweden-born journalist of Assyrian origin travels with a film crew to her parent’s homeland in Tur Abdin in southeastern Turkey in order to follow remaining traces of the crimes committed there during the year 1915. Assyrians call the year 1915 Seyfo, meaning sword. The film crew visited the cities Mardin, Diyarbekir, Midyat, Siirt and multiple other locations of where the genocide occurred.

The film includes testimony from several European, Turkish and Assyrian historians, as well as genocide researchers, including Professor Taner Akcam, Dr. Gabriele Yonan and Professor David Gaunt. The film includes testimony from survivors of the genocide.

750,000 Assyrians (75%) were killed in the genocide, as well as 500,000 Greeks and 1.5 million Armenians.

Related: Assyrian Genocide 100

The viewer of the documentary is transported into the villages in southeastern Turkey and confronted with images of devastation, where once proud houses and churches stood. The area looks like abandoned. The evidence of the past horror visible in many stone and wall ruins. The statements of the descendants of the victims of the genocide are heart-wrenching, indicating the scale of the tragedy.

Speaking at the premiere, director Aziz Said said the project was “a very emotional experience…I wanted to share with you this story and what I’ve learned with this film…its objective is to serve as a bridge of reconciliation, acceptance and peaceful coexistence between Turks, Kurds and Assyrians not only in Turkey but also in the European Diaspora. I hope it helps understand history of the region.”

The film contributes 100 years later to the memory of the greatest catastrophe in modern history of the Assyrians. This is particularly important for today’s young Assyrian people in the Diaspora and the interested European co-citizens and Kurdish and Turkish neighbors in Turkey. Such a documentary thus helps to keep the memory of the victims of the genocide alive, because Turkey as the formal successor state of the Ottoman Empire has not recognized this genocide and even vehemently denies it.

“Under the directorship of Aziz Said an impressive and professional document has been created,” said Dr. Gabriele Yonan, author of the very first book published 1989 in German about the Assyrian Genocide and who was among the invited guests in Berlin. “At the same time it is evidence that even after four generations Seyfo is alive among the descendants of victims and perpetrators. Also, it is shows that historical research focused on the Assyrian genocide has made progress in recent decades. Seyfo 1915 – Assyrian Genocide will be certainly an important film for the next generation.”

Two weeks ago the documentary was shown at a private screening in Berlin. While the German Parliament was discussing whether to recognize the genocide, the documentary was shown on Monday, April 22nd to an invited audience at the town hall of Berlin’s Schoneberg, a location famous for hosting John F. Kennedy on June 26th, 1963, when he said “Ich bin ein Berliner.”

Berlin’s audience of about 100 invited spectators were Germans, Turks, Kurds and Assyrians. Also present was the film crew that accompanied Aziz Said for several months in Turkey and Sweden.

“I was deeply touched and my heart was full of compassion for the Assyrian families, victims and relatives alike,” said Imogen Schafer, following the end credits of the documentary while the passionate beautiful music of the film was fading away at the background.

How Saudi Arabia turned Sweden’s human rights criticisms into an attack on Islam

March 30, 2015 By administrator

By Adam Taylor,

Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom

Saudi Arabia blocked Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom from speaking at an Arab League event after she criticized the kingdom’s human rights record. (Claudio Bresciani/EPA)

After a rare public criticism of its human rights record by Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom, Saudi Arabia is at diplomatic war with Sweden. The kingdom blocked Wallstrom from speaking at an Arab League event, recalled its ambassador from Stockholm and stopped giving business visas to Swedish citizens. Sweden, for its part, has cancelled a major arms deal with the Saudis.

Saudi Arabia is a key U.S. ally, and official criticism of the kingdom is remarkably rare, despite Saudi Arabia’s poor treatment of women and minorities, lack of tolerance for political discourse, and harsh punishments for apostasy and blasphemy. Many people are glad that a Western nation would take a stand for human rights in Saudi Arabia. report Washington post

But Sweden is not celebrating. The feud has sparked an intense domestic debate, with Sweden’s king even stepping in. Part of this is because of the considerable economic pressure Saudi Arabia is able to put on Sweden (Sweden exported $1.3 billion to Saudi Arabia last year). But perhaps even more powerful has been the rhetorical pressure — Saudi Arabia has succeeded in making the argument not about human rights, but about Islam.

From the start of the disagreement with Sweden, Saudi officials have emphasized that the attack isn’t just on their sovereignty, but on the entire concept of sharia law, which forms the basis of the Saudi legal system. For example, the Council of Senior Scholars, Saudi Arabia’s highest religious authority, dismissed Wallstrom’s comments as criticism of the Islamic legal system. “The Kingdom is proud of its Islamic laws, which protects human rights, dignity and private property,” said Sheik Fahad bin Saad al-Majed, secretary general of the council, according to Arab News. He added that Saudi Arabia was “a beacon of light” for Muslims around the world.

This framing caught on internationally, as well. “The ministers have voiced their condemnation and astonishment at the issuance of such statements that are incompatible with the fact that the Constitution of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is based on sharia,” Arab League foreign ministers said in a joint statement. “Sharia has guaranteed human rights and preserved people’s lives, possessions, honor and dignity.” The Organization of Islamic Cooperation also released a statement, saying Sweden needed to “not claim moral authority to pass one-sided judgments and moral categorizations of others.”

Saudi Arabia’s interpretation of sharia law has been called “one of the strictest interpretations” of Islamic law in the modern age, but Fahad Nazer, a former political analyst at the Saudi Embassy in Washington, says the Saudi legal system has become a “red line” that the kingdom won’t allow criticism to cross. “Framing the argument in religious terms does make it more difficult for Western critics to push the Saudis hard on this,” Nazer explains. “It’s not a debate that Western countries want to be engaged in.”

Sweden clearly has no desire to anger every Muslim-majority nation, for a variety of reasons (not least economic). It certainly has no desire to anger the Muslims who live in Sweden, with whom the government has a not-always-comfortable relationship. And, ultimately, it may not really want to completely discredit the Saudi Sharia system — a system that Saudi Arabia has touted as an alternative to even more extreme forms of Islamic fundamentalism.

Even in Sweden, some see Wallstrom’s comments as critical of an entire religion. Thord Janson from the Department of Global Studies at the University of Gothenburg told Svenska Dagbladet that Wallstrom’s comments could be interpreted as criticism of Islam, no matter whether she meant them that way or not.

Wallstrom herself now seems to concede that she has lost the narrative. “We have the greatest respect for Islam as a world religion and for its contributions to our common civilization,” she told Sweden’s parliament last week. Later, when told that the idea that Sweden was criticizing Islam as a whole was spreading on social media, she told Swedish radio: “Yes, I am concerned about that.”

There’s now a debate in Sweden about whether Wallstrom should back down, and it seems unlikely that other Western countries will back up her criticism of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record. “The Saudis do realize the need to reform many of their institutions,” Nazer explains, “but they’ll do so on their own terms, not because of outside pressure.”

Sweden offers to question Assange in London over rape allegations

March 13, 2015 By administrator

STOCKHOLM – Agence France-Presse

REUTERS Photo.

Swedish prosecutors on March 13 offered to question WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in London over rape allegations, providing a possible breakthrough in the long-running case.

One of Assange’s lawyers welcomed the offer saying it would be a first step in clearing his client who has been holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy in London since 2012.

“He will accept” to be questioned in London, attorney Per Samuelsson told AFP, adding that his client was “happy” about the breakthrough.

“We are cooperating with the investigation,” he said.

Up to now, Swedish prosecutors have refused to go to London to question Assange over the allegations.

But on Friday, the prosecutor in charge of the case said she was changing her stance as the statute of limitations on some of the alleged crimes will become effective in August.

“Marianne Ny has today made a request to Julian Assange’s legal representatives whether Assange would consent to being interviewed in London and have his DNA taken via a swab,” her office said in a statement.

“My view has always been that to perform an interview with him at the Ecuadorian embassy in London would lower the quality of the interview, and that he would need to be present in Sweden in any case should there be a trial,” Ny said.

“This assessment remains unchanged,” she said. But “now that time is of the essence, I have viewed it therefore necessary to accept such deficiencies to the investigation and likewise take the risk that the interview does not move the case forward,” she said.

Sweden issued an arrest warrant for Assange in 2010 over charges made by two women of rape and molestation.

A lawyer for one of the women who has levelled the accusations against the WikiLeaks founder welcomed the prosecutors’ offer.

“Assange did not make himself available to be interviewed in Sweden… That’s why it is necessary to change the location of the interview,” her attorney Elizabeth Fritz told AFP in an email.

Assange, 43, has refused to return to Sweden to answer the allegations, which he has vehemently denied.

He says he believes that Stockholm would extradite him to the US to be tried for his role in WikiLeaks’ publication of classified US diplomatic, military and intelligence documents.

WikiLeaks has been targeted by the US authorities since its release in 2010 of 500,000 secret military files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and 250,000 diplomatic cables.

A former army intelligence analyst, Chelsea Manning, is currently serving a 35-year prison term for leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks.

In 2012 Assange took refuge in Ecuador’s embassy in London, where he has been since at a cost of 11,000 euros ($10,300) each day, according to his lawyers.

The situation has remained essentially stagnant since Assange arrived, and after a lower Swedish court rejected in November his appeal of the 2010 warrant for his arrest, Assange’s attorney took the motion to Sweden’s Supreme Court in February.

“We are asking the court to give us access to the phone text messages that the two plaintiffs exchanged, and which (prosecutors) possess,” Samuelsson said,saying he was certain contents of the messages would prove Assange’s innocence.