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Assange Case: Something Sick About the SMS

Assange lawyers trying to protect evidence that the prosecution are trying to destroy?

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STOCKHOLM (Rixstep) — Someone found something fishy in the war over the SMS messages in the case of Assange in Sweden - something to do with police procedures during investigations.

Swedish police have a 'discard' pile for evidence they don't want and/or the prosecutors don't want to bring to court.

They call it the 'slask'.

What's crucial is what happens to the 'slask' over time.

Following now are two posts from the Flashback forum which can shed light on the underlying issues. They can perhaps lend a clue to why the Assange attorneys are so adamant that the courts get these SMS messages.

Once received by a court, the messages are namely in the public record: they can no longer be hidden or destroyed.

Tulpanpernilla

A response from the prosecutors. Case Ö 8290-14 Julian Assange ./. Söderort Prosecution Authority in Stockholm Re: detention ... 1. We oppose the injunction that we submit the documents containing the SMS traffic to Julian Assange or the court of appeal. ... SMS traffic The defence attorneys have been given access to the documents which contain the SMS traffic of the complainants by letting them read these documents at the police station. The most recent occasion this happened was on 15 July 2014, and for two hours... The SMS traffic that's relevant for judging probable cause has been accounted in the supplements to the district court. Together with the written materials the court of appeal already has, they constitute in our opinion a sufficient documentation to judge probable cause. ... The reason we oppose the release of copies of the documents with the SMS traffic is found in our response to the court of appeal dated 23 September 2014.

trenterx

There's something sick about the SMS. 1. We remember how it all began: Björn Hurtig got to look at the SMS traffic at the same time Marianne Ny told him that she'd report him to the bar association if he told anyone about the contents of the messages. All told it's about 100 messages. 2. Hurtig takes notes in the margins of the other police documents. There we can see that some of the messages reveal that Sofia was discussing plans of revenge against Assange; she talked about going to the tabloid Expressen with her story; she also mentioned that she'd get a lot of money for her story. Hurtig said that if all the SMS messages were released, the case would collapse. 3. Julian Assange published, in his affidavit, translations of four SMS messages. They're constructed, most likely, on notes made by Thomas Olsson and Per E Samuelson. The messages are all about Sofia not wanting to file a complaint against Assange, that it was the police who took over and pushed the matter. 4. At the hearings in the district court this past summer, the defence got a copy of the SMS messages for use during the hearings. But they had to return this copy, it seems. The court however did not get to see the messages. But they're still expected to render a good verdict. Is this justice? Hardly. 5. Marianne Ny bases her position on a few chosen messages ('the SMS traffic that's relevant for judging probable cause'). These are accounted for in a filing to the district court. The other messages aren't accounted anywhere. The objective is clearly to make sure they're never accounted either. If charges are brought, then they disappear in the 'slask'. If the case is closed, then they also disappear - for all time. Marianne Ny is not only trying to deny the defence copies of the messages - she's also trying to stop the Svea court of appeal from getting copies themselves. This is absurd. One begins to understand why Samuelson and Olsson want to secure these messages: Hurtig said they'd make the case collapse.

I'm so sick of it all. Will it never end? At any rate I want to say the other girl's just as much to blame.
- Anna Ardin

Apparently Swedish laws are unique. If you have a penis you're half a rapist before you even get through customs.
- Scott Adams

If I am able to reveal what I know, everyone will realise this is all a charade. If I could tell the British courts, I suspect it would make extradition a moot point.
- Björn Hurtig

I can tell you that the Swedish prosecution still hasn't provided copies of those SMS texts that have been referred to. Those texts are some of the most powerful exculpatory evidence. In Australia prosecutors have a very grave duty to disclose such evidence to courts when seeking the grave exercise of a court's power against an individual. Yet in Sweden in this case, in the first hearings to obtain an arrest warrant, those texts were not submitted to the Swedish court, which is highly improper.
- James Catlin

The prosecutor could achieve this broadening of the law during Assange's trial so he can be convicted of a crime that didn't exist at the time he allegedly committed it. She would need to. There is no precedent for this. The Swedes are making it up as they go along.
- James Catlin

Julian Assange will surely learn that considering what WikiLeaks has published, he's got a few enemies in the Pentagon, the CIA, and the White House. Sweden began an investigation into rape which was later dismissed. Assange was even denied residence in Sweden. One can only speculate to what extent the security agencies of the US were involved. And considering the obvious interest of the US to silence WikiLeaks, is it likely Assange will have an accident of the 'Boston brakes' kind in the coming years? Or will he be snared with compromising information of the 'honey trap' kind?
- 'Drozd' at Flashback 23 October 2010

The truth will out, the truth wins out. Let no journalist ever again speculate into what the protocols say. Six months of digging and the people at Flashback have the actual documents. The sleaze printed by rags such as the Daily Mail, Sweden's Aftonbladet and Expressen, and perhaps above all the toxic Nick Davies of the Guardian, can stand no more. Yet more: these documents are an indictment of the 'news organisations' who've printed deliberate inaccuracies all along or even worse: refused to print anything at all. Nick Davies' account of the protocols was maliciously skewed; both Aftonbladet and Expressen had copies early on and printed nothing. Bloggers had copies but arrogantly kept the information to their Smeagol selves.
- The Assange Police Protocol: Translator's Note