Anyone who is reasonably familiar with the increasingly embarrassing affair Sweden vs. Julian Assange probably recognizes the name Marianne Ny, the prosecutor who started the spectacle that has now cost the Swedish and British taxpayers millions of dollars. Ny is not only a prosecutor but also a deeply convinced feminist. During her watch, no suspected woman-assailant shall get away. “We have not turned all the stones,” replied Ny when asked why she chose to send out the warrant on Assange, even though he had already promised to return to Sweden when he was done with his scheduled job in London.
Does the Swedish prosecutor’s office not read the Flashback thread? One has to wonder if there could be a single stone remained unturned in it. The conclusion is clear: The Swedish prosecution has no case against Julian Assange. In spite of that, when they choose to send out an international arrest warrant with the highest priority level that Interpol has (normally used against terrorists and mass murderers), you’ve got to agree with Mr. Assange that there is reason for concern. Then, when Sweden would not even officially promise not to send him right into the arms of the CIA, as he demanded in exchange for giving himself up, his concern understandably grew.
This is, however, about something else. How many of you remember Marianne Ny’s statement on page 8 of the Swedish Court Administration Agency’s report about the new women’s peace law from 2001?
“Only when the man is arrested and the woman are left in peace she have time to get some perspective on her life, she then get a chance to discover how she really have been treated.” “Marianne Ny says that the prosecution has a good effect to protect women, even in the cases where the offender is prosecuted but not convicted.”
That really was what she said in the quote is quickly confirmed by the Google search engine:
Now for the really strange bit. Apparently someone at the Court Administration Agency thought that this statement was a bit controversial. Especially as the prosecutor who uttered it has become world famous and therefore risks having her previous works examined in a way that she does not normally need to be afraid of here in Sweden.
That the Swedish “women’s peace” law would allow the state to arbitrarily detain men in order to give their accusers “peace and quiet” to, with the help of someone from all the Swedish women’s separatist organizations of course, “help” them to “realize” how they have been dealt with, can hardly be considered to be in line with what the European Union and the United Nations would call human rights. Especially since the prosecutor apparently believes that it is the detention itself that it is beauty of it, and that if there is a conviction or not does not seem to be an issue.
But that is precisely what it is. A prosecutor may not prosecute a citizen if he or she is not confident that it is possible to convict the person. If there is any doubt in the mind of the prosecutor, the case must be dropped. However, there is no limit that specifies how long a prosecutor may keep you locked up in jail while “investigating” the case. She must only remember to hold regular custody proceedings in court and there say things like “We have not yet turned all the stones.” As long as she does that, she can keep you basically however long she wants. A fact that Sweden repeatedly gets criticized for by, among others, the UN Committee against Torture and cruel treatment of prisoners. The quote from Marianne Ny is thus questionable. Both legally and in regards to international principles of human rights.
Now that a final settlement in the Assange affair looks like it could be approaching, it would probably be quite embarrassing for Sweden and our legal system if the quote from the prosecutor who started it all spreads across the world. Especially since it is precisely this process that Marianne Ny and the Swedish government have used against the poor man.
This must be what the Swedish Court Administration agency realized. Therefore, they have now chosen to recently change the wording of the 14-year-old published report.
Now, instead, the following turns up on page 8 if you choose to download the file:
Translation: “Only when the man is arrested and the woman is left in peace she have time to get some perspective on her life, she then get a chance to discover how she really have been treated.” “Marianne Ny says, prosecutor at the office in Kristianstad. It is the prosecutors and police task to investigate and prosecute crimes. The law does state what is to be considered criminal.”
And perhaps strangest of all: Even in the PDF files that have already been downloaded onto people’s private FTP servers, the change has occurred. This must thus have been a highly prioritized matter and a highly sophisticated operation.
Fortunately, there is both Google cache and attentive citizens out there. AVfM would like to thank the website “Pappamanualen.se” for this tip. This Swedish “Dad Manual” website is one of those that had the report uploaded on their own FTP server and now with great astonishment found that, despite that, it had been changed.
This therefore means that if you find peculiarities in a Swedish governmental PDF document, it is obviously not enough to only download them and upload them to your own private anonymous FTP server and believe that the proof is thus secured. The state’s tentacles apparently now reach in there too.
Editorial note: This article originally appeared on AVfM Sweden and is translated here into English. Article title image from Wikimedia Commons. -DE
