Some people seem to support Assange so much they hate Sweden. So what is really going on? There's lots of misinformation being spread. The New Statesman has a good summary of misconcetions.

Essentially, Swedish authorities want to arrest Assange to question him about a suspected case of rape. People think Assange, having been extradited to Sweden would then be extradited to the U.S. Just ask Manning how the U.S. treats people they don't like.

However, as the article makes clear, there really is no reason Assange shouldn't face the charges brought against him by the Swedish authorities. Due process has been followed.

Half way through the year!

Brazilian prisoners can now have their sentences shortened by reading books and writing essays on them. I hope they follow this up with research on the recidivism rates of the participants. Other studies seem to suggest that education can be more useful than enforcement. Well here's a real test of the idea.

A German court has ruled religious circumcision of infants a crime. This was ruled in a regional court in Cologne. I'm not sure how the legal system in Germany works, but it appears that this isn't an absolute ban across all of Germany. Still, it brings up an interesting debate of religious freedoms. Any infant that has been circumcised clearly didn't have the ability to consent to their body being modified. Should this be allowed?

In Tahrir Square, Cairo, a British journalist was sexually assaulted. This unfortunately doesn't seem to be a one-off incident. There was a journalist for France 3 that was 'brutally molested' a year ago. There was also the case of Lara Logan, who was also sexually assaulted. Now that Egypt has supposed democracy let's see if they can protect their women such degrading behaviour. No-one deserves to be violated against their will in such a horrible manner. No-one.

A U.N. report has come out which names Cannabis as the most used recreational drug. Clearly are laws aren't working and we should clamp down even harder! Well, no, it's about time we got rid of the stigma associated with discussing drug law reform. Why don't we take all the money we spend locking up drug addicts and spend it on rehabilitation?

Egypt had an election recently, with the results coming out now. The new president of Egypt is the Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi. He was the main candidate running that wasn't associated with the previous Mubarak regime. We'll see how things go for Egypt now.

Julian Assange is seeking asylum in Ecuador after his appeal against extradition to Sweden was rejected. Sweden want to question him, with a view to bringing charges later. It's interesting why he wouldn't want to go to Sweden, here's a great comment on reddit.com about the issue:

I have said this in a couple of places already, but since there seems to be a lot of confusion about the possibility of an extradition from Sweden to the US, I hope this can be seen by more people.

First, under Swedish law, a person cannot be extradited to a country where he/she risks death penalty or any physical harm. The extradition to Egypt was a major fuck-up, sure, but given the publicity of the Assange case it's not gonna happen again. There's also a difference since in the Egypt case, they were applying for political asylum and got denied, difference from someone that Sweden has requested to come here.

Secondly, Sweden cannot extradite people for political crimes, which, most likely, would be what Assange would be charged with in the US. Even if the US would label it as "terrorism" it would still be up to Swedish courts to independantly decide if it would be political or not.

Thirdly, an extradition from Sweden to another country has to be approved by the UK, since they have agreed to an extradition to Sweden, not any other country.

Assange is being extradited to Sweden for questioning in the case, not a trial. So far he has not been charged with any crimes. I've read parts of the custody memo which was filed to the court when the prosecutor requested Assange to be put in custody in absentia, and it's pretty much a "he said, she said" case without much evidence. I'd be surprised if it would even go to trial and if it did, I'd be even more surprised if Assange was convicted from the way things look now.

I'm a Swedish lawyer, if anyone has any questions about the Swedish legal system I'd be happy to answer to the best of my abilities. Going to bed pretty soon but I'll carry on tomorrow if there's need.

ACTA has been rejected by another EU committee. We now have to see how the European Parliament will vote on the treaty in July. Whilst there are good things, it does too much damage to basic human freedoms. Until they address this issue in an ACTAv2 or something, I will continue to oppose it.