Assange case "calls warrants system into question" - solicitor.

The case of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange calls

into question the entire operation of the European Arrest Warrant system, his

solicitor Mark Stephens said Tuesday.

The comment came after Stephens released on the internet website of his

firm a preliminary note of the skeleton argument Assange's legal team will be

using as the basis for their case against his extradition to Sweden to be

questioned on sex offence allegations.

The first point the document makes is that a Swedish prosecutor has called

for Assange's arrest under a European Arrest Warrant she had no power to issue.

It says: "Marianne Ny, a public prosecutor in Gothenburg, Sweden, has

requested the extradition of Julian Paul Assange to Sweden pursuant to a

European Arrest Warrant (EAW) issued on December 2 2010 and certified by the

Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) on December 6 2010.

"It should be made clear at the outset that it is not accepted that Ms Ny

is authorised to issue European Arrest Warrants." The document points out that

in a case in the High Court in 2005 the Crown Prosecution Service had

confirmed that the only authority in Sweden which could authorise the

enforcement of a custodial sentence or other form of detention was the Swedish

National Police Board.

But there was no evidence that that official position had changed since the

High Court's judgment in November 2005, the document says, adding:

"Accordingly, if the Swedish National Police Board is the sole issuing

judicial authority in Sweden, then Ms Ny was not authorised to issue the

European Arrest Warrant in this case, and it is invalid."

Stephens said: "The other side have failed to answer this point, even

though it was raised with them on December 23. "This case raises questions

about the workings of the European Arrest Warrant system, and the supine way

in which it has been operated by British authorities.

"Some 95 percent of these warrants are executed without any questions being

asked.

"The warrants are supposed to be issued by a judicial authority - a court

or a judge - and a prosecutor does not count as a judicial authority. So we

say the prosecutor had no power to issue the warrant, and it is void.

"If we are to have a system of these warrants, there has to be judicial

control, and there has to be some plain system of justice involved - otherwise

we will have police in Bulgaria issuing arrest warrants to take people back to

imperfect systems of justice without any protection or intervention."

A Crown Prosecution Service spokesman here refused to comment on Stephens'

claims, saying: "We will be responding to this in court."

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