LONDON ( AP) — Julian Assange took his extradition battle to Britain’s Supreme Court today, arguing that sending him to Sweden would violate a fundamental principle of natural law.
The two- day hearing is Assange’s last chance to persuade British judges to quash efforts to send him to Scandinavia, where he is wanted on sex crimes allegations.
The case hinges on a single technical point: whether Sweden’s public prosecutor can properly issue a warrant for Assange’s arrest.
In Britain as in the United States, generally only judges can issue arrest warrants, and British courts only honor warrants issued by what they describe as judicial authorities.
Lawyers for Sweden argue that, in Sweden as in other European countries, prosecutors play a judicial or semijudicial role.
Assange lawyer Dinah Rose rejected that argument today, telling the seven justices gathered in Britain’s highest court that a prosecutor “does not, and indeed cannot as a matter of principle, exercise judicial authority.”
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