Brief: The Assange Case

The plot of the Julian Assange affair is a complex one, it involves many countries and different alliances. Assange is an Australian who lives in the United Kingdom. He was the head of Wikileaks, an organisation that embarrassed many nations by releasing diplomatic cables and other sensitive information, most of the information was related to the United States which infuriated the government. Previously he was accused to sexually assaulting two women in Sweden, the charges had been dropped but since Wikileaks and Assange became famous the two women have taken them up. This has led to many people believing that they only did so under pressure from American authorities. Since Assange currently resides in London he must be extradited to Sweden so the police can question him, he has been fighting extradition for months but has been unsuccessful in doing so. Eventually he broke police bail and asked for asylum from Ecuador and took residence in their London Embassy. The primary reason that Mr Assange does not wish to go to Sweden is not because of the charges, it is because of the fear that he will then be extradited to the United States.

I find this last point the weirdest as he currently lives in America's closest ally: the United Kingdom, so why going to Sweden would put him more at risk I don't understand.

It is a very complex case as it involves five nations and four continents. Although he has been granted political asylum by Ecuador, the British government have told police that if he leaves the embassy to go to the airport that they must arrest him. The issue is not looking likely to disappear any time soon, Assange was only granted asylum last Saturday and the British government refuses to back down. No doubt Argentina will support Ecuador.

The Death Penalty - The Facts

Last year over 4,000 people were executed across the globe, many of these were executed for petty reasons and many will also be innocent.

The following map shows the extent of execution in our world, red indicates that the country retains the death penalty; orange indicates the country retains the death penalty but has not used it in over ten years. Green indicates that the country has abolished the death penalty except for exceptional circumstances (such as war) and blue indicates that a country has abolished the death penalty in all circumstances.

 This map gives an indication over where we’re at in the world. Europe has the best record on execution; Belarus is the only country in Europe that still executes prisoners. One of the reasons that Europe has such a good record on execution is that both the Council of Europe and the European Union require members to abolish the death penalty before they are admitted.  The Americas is another continent with a good record, the majority of countries have not used it in the past ten years. Only three countries still actively use the death penalty, the USA, St Kitts and Nevis and Cuba. Australasia has mostly abolished the death penalty, with only a few (very small) states still actively using it.

Asia is the worst offender when it comes to execution: of the 21 nations that performed executions (officially) in 2011, 15 of the states were Asian.  The top four states by number of people executed were also Asian.  China carries out more executions that all other nations combined, it is thought that in 2011 China executed up to 4,000 people. Although there have been moves in China to reduce the amount of crimes that result in execution.