What motivates the outrage over Julian Assange's Political Asylum?

[intaglio]

69. I agree, it is currently humiliating and degrading in an adversarial court system

The Swedish system is not adversarial. It is based on "Code Napoleon" and is far more friendly to victims, although perjury can be prosecuted.

The idea is that the prosecutor presents evidence of wrongdoing. This can include statements given by the victim and later retracted. The defense can do the same. Questioning of witnesses is very strictly subscribed and IIRC does not take place in open court. There is no jury, only 2 lay and 1 professional judges. Lay judges are appointed for several years.

Now on to your point about forcing witnesses to testify - agreed, in English style court system it is wrong. There is, of course, the problem that many rapists escape because of the dreadful pressures put on victims in adversarial systems by family, friends and society. In Britain there has been a lot of concern because the Police and the Crown Prosecution Service often refuse to prosecute because of the vulnerability of the victim's evidence. This leads to the dreadful situation that of rape complaints received only about 6% result in conviction i.e. only about 10% of rape complaints get to court but once there 6 out of 10 result in conviction. Judges are supposed to protect the witness but all to often do not.

The question then becomes "Do you allow a rapist to escape, probably offending again, because of the terrible trauma that might be done to the witness because of an incompetent judge?"

Is there an easy answer? No.

Is prosecution despite the wishes of the victim a result of a patriarchal system? Again, no! Without prosecutions carried through against the wishes of the victim the conviction rate of sickening toe-rags would be worse. In the UK it has been female campaigners who have pushed for more proactive prosecution of rapists.

The truth is that both Common Law and Code Napoleon systems have their weaknesses but in the cases where victims need protection from society Code Napoleon has the advantages.