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Assange prosecutor 'is anti-men'
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The prosecutor who wants WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange extradited to Sweden to face sex charges is "biased" against men, a court has heard.
Retired Swedish appeal court judge Brita Sundberg-Weitman made the claim about Marianne Ny as Assange's legal team said putting the 39-year-old Australian into the hands of the authorities in Stockholm would be a "flagrant denial of justice".
They fear a move to Sweden could lead to him being taken against his will to the United States, detained at Guantanamo Bay and ultimately executed for spying.
Mrs Sundberg-Weitman, who was flown to London by Assange's legal team to give evidence supporting their argument, said she could not understand the "attitude" of Miss Ny, a specialist rape prosecutor, and accused her of having a "rather biased view against men".
She said: "She seems to take it for granted that everybody under prosecution is guilty. I think she is so preoccupied with the situation of battered women and raped women that she has lost balance."
Woolwich Crown Court, sitting at Belmarsh Magistrates' Court, heard extradition is disproportionate and the offences he faces are not crimes under British law. Geoffrey Robertson QC said Swedish officials were not authorised to order his extradition and filled out vital paperwork ambiguously and incorrectly.
Swedish officials confirmed for the first time they want to prosecute Assange, not just question him, and said they have followed due process.
Assange faces three charges of sexually assaulting one woman and one charge of raping another during a week-long visit to Stockholm last August.
Speaking outside court after the hearing, Assange said: "For the past five-and-a-half months we have been in a condition where a black box has been applied to my life.
"On the outside of that black box has been written the word 'rape'. That box is now, thanks to an open court process, been opened. I hope over the next day we will see that that box is in fact empty and has nothing to do with the words that are on the outside of it."
