Smokey, it has been proved he has a case to answer, other than a trial what other way could the Swedish authorities prove to you that he should be extradited?

George Galloway showing how utterly crazy he is by describing rape as "bad sexual etiquette".

What else would you expect from the man?

How can it have been proved he has a case to answer when he has not even been formally questioned ? The EAW is for his extradition so he can be questioned, not for him to be prosecuted, which is not in accordance with the rules for EAW's.

Furthermore, how can an arrest warrant be issued by a prosecutor - surely such a warrant should be issued by an impartial party such as a judge ? A prosecutor can not, and should not, constitute a relevant judicial authority.

The EAW system is open to abuse, as the less publicised case of Dr Miguel-Angel Meizoso shows.

I am not a fan of Assange by any measure but this whole saga is tainted with the underlying notion that we are once again being the US's poodle.

You are making the breathtaking claim that we should say "No, we will break European law and fail to comply with a valid legal extradition, because we assume that once Assange gets to Sweden, a) the US will ask for his extradition from there and b) the Swedish judicial system is so corrupt that any legal challenge by Assange to such extradition would be doomed to failure because Sweden would not comply with its own laws on extradition".

If that is the case then you are quite deluded. How the fsck is the UK complying with a valid EAW, after due process of appeal, even remotely connectable with US and poodles?

There is a valid legal process in England that he has gone through and failed. Tough. Now we have to abide by the law, and even if it ends up that Assange IS ultimately extradited to the US, any complaint he might have about that could only ever be against the Swedish legal system.

Of course he has a case to answer, 2 women have accused him of rape and sexual crimes. The Swedish authorities have investigated and decided he has a case to answer in Sweden, considering he is refusing to go to Sweden, how do you think the Swedish should question him. Are you another one who assumes a trial should take place before he is arrested?

No the EAW is to arrest him, that's why it's called an arrest warrant. An arrest usually has to be done before someone is prosecuted.

Why shouldn't a prosecutor issue an arrest warrant? And why isn't a prosecutor a relevant judicial authority? A prosecutor is, by definition, a relevant judicial authority.

This kind of thinking, that Sweden and the UK are so totally corrupted that its all a big plan to get Assange to the US, is just bizarre to me, its just fantasy, conspiracy-theorist guff on the same level as alien autopsy's and Elvis isn't really dead.

So do you think the Police in this country call up someone who's jumped bail and have a quit chat with him before they arrest him? Of course not, they decide to charge him if there is enough evidence to have a good chance of conviction, not if it's guaranteed. So the Swedes have decided that there is a good chance of conviction and have had him arrested.

Would you be raising as much fuss if he'd been arrested in London as Glasgow Police were looking for him for committing a crime? It's essentially the same system, just scaled up. All the checks and balances have been made - more so than for an accused man transferring from London to Glasgow - and so it's time he proved his innocence.

I don't think there's much point in arguing with Smokey. Nothing can get to him whilst he's wearing his foil hat.

So you didn't bother reading any of the earlier links then?