Re: Kafka lives
But as the original warrant and charges that he was on bail for have been withdrawn, he shouldn't have been on bail in the first place, as he had (technically) not done anything wrong.
I'm afraid this in wrong on every level.
Firstly Sweden have never charged him. Their legal system is different to ours and he buggered off to Blighty the night before his interview, where they could charge him.
Secondly charges haven't been withdrawn. Well obviously they haven't even been pressed yet. But the investigation hasn't been dropped. They've just stopped pursuing it, and withdrawn the International Arrest Warrant. They're free to re-issue the EAW as soon as progress looks more likely - it was only cancelled because they got their wrists slapped by their courts for carrying on with a case that was impossible to resolve.
But that still doesn't mean he retrospectively shouldn't have been on bail in the first place. That would be ludicrous - as it would basically be saying to criminals that if you can run away for long enough, you can get away with it.
Actually Sweden do that, with their statute of limitations. Something I think is immoral, even if there are good reasons for it. Like Berlusconi getting away with all those fraud convictions, by running so many appeals, that the final appeal hadn't been heard before the statute of limitations ran out - so he got off even though the previous court had convicted him. Or in fact Assange getting away with hiding for 5 years from the sexual assault allegations, in order to avoid having to face his accusors in court. He's now just 3 1/2 years from running away from his rape case - which doesn't exactly do much justice to the alleged victims.
Anyway his breach of legitimate bail was a crime when he did it. And just because he's successfully hidden from justice, doesn't seem a good reason to let him off that - given he knew full well what he was doing when he did it. I hope Ecuador kick him out before the time runs out, so those 2 Swedish women get their day in court. Be funny if he was found not guilty, and had wasted 6 years in voluntary hiding... Well maybe not really funny, but I think I'd still laugh.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
