On 29/01/2020 08:27, jim bell wrote:
The one silver lining to this cloud of a case (biker hit by diplomat's wife in UK, who fled to America claiming diplomatic immunity) is that it might make the British judges think twice about approving the extradiiton of Julian Assange to America.

No, they won't care. This is for three reasons: (1) The two cases are genuinely not substantively linked in any way, (2) the whole Sacoolas thing is Boris posturing so as to be seen to be doing something (even though it's a pointless something), and (3) Assange's extradition is already effectively decided; of course he's going to be extradited.

An additional point on the Sacoolas affair: As I understand it, she had legitimate and genuine diplomatic immunity in the UK. As such, there was never any possibility that she could be held accountable in any way or that she could ever be extradited from the USA. As the US State Department said, it would set a dangerous precedent to extradite her. Like it or not, they are right. Even when diplomats commit serious (alleged) crimes, they are in practice exempt from prosecution in the host country. That's the way it has always been and, all things considered, the way it should be. I.e. The benefits of this arrangement outweigh the drawbacks, overall.

It beggared belief in my view that the UK actually formally requested extradition of Sacoolas: They knew it would be rejected. They would have rejected it themselves if the circumstances had been reversed. The only possible reason to go ahead with the extradition request was, as I mentioned above, for the Boris administration to be seen to be doing something (even though they knew it could not, would not, and should not amount to anything). That the British government then expressed surprise at the rejection is even more absurd.

After some looking, mostly using google to find ' "Julian Assange" "extraterritoriality" '  , I haven't found anything credible justifying the extradition of Julian Assange, for any reason.

Isn't there an extradition treaty between the UK and USA? As such, if he is accused of a serious crime in the USA then there seems to be little reason for the UK courts or government to prevent his extradition (although the USA's apparent presumption of extraterritoriality certainly grates). He did not have diplomatic immunity, as Sacoolas did.