Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, is expected to appear in a UK court tomorrow!

[Jan Klimkowski]

Wait until Putin's secret police enter the British Embassy in Moscow to arrest a UK diplomat wanted for questioning and then see how MSM cries "Foul Calumny!" and "The End of Civilized Diplomacy".

Oh, you bet! That's exactly right. What the UK is doing is throwing away centuries of diplomatic convention which has worked well for everyone until now. Now I can't wait to see if they like it when it is used against them like in your above scenario.

And let's compare the alleged crimes of Assange with the crimes of the fascist butcher General Pinochet, friend of Thatcher and the Bush family, facilitator of Colonia Dignidad and Condor.

Arrest in London

In 1998, Pinochet, who still had much influence in Chile, travelled to the United Kingdom for medical treatment allegations have been made that he was also there to negotiate arms contracts.[4] While there, he was arrested on 17 October 1998 under an international arrest warrant issued by judge Baltasar Garzón of Spain,[5] and was placed under house arrest: initially in the clinic where he had just undergone back surgery, and later in a rented house. The charges included 94 counts of torture of Spanish citizens, the 1975 assassination of Spanish diplomat Carmelo Soria, and one count of conspiracy to commit torture allegations of abuses had been made numerous times before his arrest, including since the beginning of his rule, but never acted upon.

[snip]

There was a hard-fought 16-month legal battle in the House of Lords, the then highest court of the United Kingdom.[6] Pinochet claimed immunity from prosecution as a former head of state under the State Immunity Act 1978. This was rejected, as the Lords decreed that some international crimes, such as torture, could not be protected by former head-of-state immunity.[7] The Lords, however, decided in March 1999 that Pinochet could only be prosecuted for crimes committed after 1988, the date during which the United Kingdom implemented legislation for the United Nations Convention Against Torture in the Criminal Justice Act 1988.[7][8] This invalidated most, but not all, of the charges against him; but the outcome was that extradition could proceed. In April 1999, former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and former US President George H. W. Bush called upon the British government to release Pinochet.[9][10] They urged that Pinochet be allowed to return to his homeland rather than be forced to go to Spain. On the other hand, United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights, Mary Robinson, hailed the Lords' ruling, declaring that it was a clear endorsement that torture is an international crime subject to universal jurisdiction.[8] Furthermore, Amnesty International and the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture demanded his extradition to Spain.[11] Finally, in protest against Spain's action, Chile withdrew for a time its ambassador from Madrid.[12]

There were then questions about Pinochet's allegedly fragile health. After medical tests, the Home Secretary Jack Straw ruled in January 2000 that he should not be extradited. This triggered protests from human rights NGOs, and led in January 2000 the Belgian government, along with six human rights groups (including Amnesty International), to depose a complaint against Straw's decision before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).[13] Belgium, as well as France and Switzerland, had deposed extradition requests in the wake of Spain's demand.[13] Despite the protests of legal and medical experts from several countries, Straw finally ruled, in March 2000, to set free Pinochet and authorize his free return to Chile.[14] Henceforth, on 3 March 2000, Pinochet returned to Chile.