At last the Swedish authorities have dropped their grotesque ‘rape’ charges (or intended charges) against Julian Assange: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39973864. About time too. Presumably this means that the Swedish extradition request to Britain – which was problematical quite irrespective of the veracity of the accusations (see https://bernardjporter.com/2017/04/26/assange-latest/) – lapses too, and he can come out of the South American embassy he has sought asylum in since 2012, and resume a normal (or what for him passes as normal) life. It also means that the Swedish legal system is no longer in danger of being justly derided the world over, as it would have been if Assange had ever gone to trial. I suspect that this – embarrassment – is one of the reasons the charges have been dropped.

There are only, so far, two doubts. (The news has only broken in the last few minutes, so details are obscure as yet.) Firstly he was, as I understand it, also sought for examination on other, lesser sex charges. Have those been withdrawn too, and are they extraditable? Secondly, the USA still wants him over there to face charges of treason (for leaking secret documents). Trump has made it plain that he’s even keener to get him than Obama was (http://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/20/politics/julian-assange-wikileaks-us-charges/). Is it conceivable that Theresa May, in order to cuddle up more with the Donald, would accede to an extradition request from there? (Corbyn obviously wouldn’t.)

(I’ve blogged on this many times before. Word-search ‘Assange’.)