A controversial way to arrest a controversial figure.

ITV NEWS - KIER SIMMONS

Already Wikileaks is enveloped in controversy. Now a deeply controversial law is being used to arrest it’s founder Julian Assange. Given the history of that law the implications may be extremely serious for him.

Sweden has issued a European Arrest Warrant. Let me tell you a story about a man who was extradited to Greece last year under just such a warrant. Andrew Symeou was arrested in Britain in connection with the death of a British man who was punched in the face in a Greek nightclub. Andrew is adamant that he was not in the nightclub, a claim corroborated by many witnesses.

Andrew was sent to Greece put in prison and refused bail three times. He was finally released in June but a date for his trial still hasn’t been set. A trial was supposed to get started during that month but it was adjourned because the prosecution had failed to ensure witnesses had received a court summons.

Andrew Symeou is not the only such case. The European Arrest Warrant was created by the European Union in 2002. Since then the campaign group Fair Trials International says a series of injustices have been done.