Ex-judge says extradition prosecutor sexually biased

LONDON - The prosecutor seeking to have Julian Assange extradited to Sweden on sexual assault allegations is a "well-known radical feminist" with a "biased view" of men, a court heard yesterday.

The accusation against Marianne Ny was made by a retired Swedish appeal court judge, Brita Sundberg-Weitman, who was giving evidence at Assange's extradition hearing at Belmarsh Magistrates' Court in London.

Assange, 39, who founded WikiLeaks, is wanted in Sweden on suspicion of rape and other sexual offences said to have taken place in August last year. Sundberg-Weitman said Ny was mounting a "malicious" and "hostile" prosecution of Assange.

Yesterday lawyers representing the Swedish authorities told the court that Assange will be charged if he is sent back to Sweden. Assange's defence team had argued that the Swedish authorities merely wanted to question the Australian and that the European arrest warrant issued against him could not be executed for someone simply wanted for questioning.

The hearing, which was expected to conclude today, also heard about Assange's alleged victims. One, the court heard, had deleted Twitter messages saying that she was enjoying Assange's company. The tweets were posted after the alleged sexual assault.

But it was Sundberg-Weitman's colourful description of Ny which stood out among the legal complexities of extradition law.

The former judge, who has practised law since 1958, told the court: "She [Ny] has a rather biased view against men in her treatment of sex offences. [She] seems to take it for granted that everyone under prosecution is guilty. I think she is so preoccupied with the situation of battered women and raped women that she has lost her balance."

About Ny's failure to interview Assange before he left Sweden, five weeks after the allegations were made, she added: "It looks malicious. It would have been so simple to have him heard when he was in Sweden. And once he left Sweden it would have been so easy to have him questioned via telephone or video link."

Clare Montgomery, for the Swedish authorities, rejected the claims, saying attempts to have Assange questioned in Sweden had been thwarted by the WikiLeaks founder's lawyer, Bjorn Hurtig.

- Independent