President Correa on Assange in a recent interview.

[treestar]

41. If that is true and not exaggeration

Sigh, they are in the US, and have right to counsel, speedy trial, trial by jury, and can appeal and challenge the laws. And maybe some are guilty of whatever the charge is. "Terrorism" does not sound like a real charge, but rather an editorializing of the real charges by some extremist. It would be a state charge, and surely if you know so much about it, you could cite the statute they are charged under.

Ecuador's system is a lot worse off:

e. Denial of Fair Public Trial
While the constitution provides for an independent judiciary, in practice the judiciary was susceptible to outside pressure and corruption. The media reported on the susceptibility of the judiciary to bribes for favorable decisions and faster resolution of legal cases. Judges occasionally reached decisions based on media influence or political and economic pressures.

On May 13, Minister of the Interior Jose Serrano threatened to bring criminal charges against a judge for corruption and bias. Serrano’s accusations stemmed from the judge’s ruling in favor of Cesar Carrion, who was accused of attempting to assassinate the president during the police protest of September 2010.

In some cases the outcome of trials appeared predetermined, and there were credible allegations by defendants and the press that verdicts delivered by judges were not actually written by them. In the libel suit brought by President Correa against the newspaper El Universo (see section 2.a.), the presiding judge published a 156-page decision 25 hours after the hearing. In similar cases such decisions usually take at least two weeks (and often significantly longer) to produce. The defendants alleged that the decision was not written by the presiding judge, but rather copied onto the judge’s computer from an external memory device. The defendants filed a complaint against the judge that was under investigation by the Guayas attorney general at year’s end.

Trial Procedures
Despite efforts to modernize the court system, the judiciary continued to operate slowly and inconsistently. There were lengthy delays before most cases came to trial. Judges reportedly rendered decisions more quickly or more slowly due to political pressure or, in some cases, the payment of bribes. The failures of the justice system contributed to cases in which communities took the law into their own hands, including mob violence against suspected criminals.