Wikileaks founder accused of rape

[kouchpotato]

Some attention whore trying to pull an Al Gore, which will inevitably get picked up and repeated 24/7 by faux news while she sells her story to a news magazine.

[Skgoa]

What I'm wondering about is: why did they not accuse him of promoting child porn? It seemed to be en vogue in recent years.

So... Is there any even half-way likely other explanation for this besides "Swedish authorities try to trump up rape charges against political dissident"?

Why would Swedish authorities do so?

He recently published an article in a swedish newspaper, he and his sources are now protected by swedish freedom of press laws.

Even though most of the forum seems to believe that every single authority everywhere is ready and willing to abuse their powers,

Nice strawman.

that doesn't automatically mean that it's so.

And even though most here believe in evolution that doesn't mean its true, either. Nice false dichotomy there.

Good heaven, it's SWEDEN, not some Third World shithole, some dictatorship or USA as imagined by the board population.

Aaaand an appeal to... what exactly? Warm fuzzy feelings about Sweden? (I also like the "its not as bad as the US so it must be perfect" bit.)

[Tiriol]

What I'm wondering about is: why did they not accuse him of promoting child porn? It seemed to be en vogue in recent years.

So... Is there any even half-way likely other explanation for this besides "Swedish authorities try to trump up rape charges against political dissident"?

Why would Swedish authorities do so?

He recently published an article in a swedish newspaper, he and his sources are now protected by swedish freedom of press laws.

What does that have to do with anything? Why publishing an article would mean that Swedish authorities would want his head?

Even though most of the forum seems to believe that every single authority everywhere is ready and willing to abuse their powers,

Nice strawman.

Quite frankly, no. There are enough threads about people stating their distrust of any governmental/hierarchical organization or their agents, hypothetical or otherwise, to note the tendency.

that doesn't automatically mean that it's so.

And even though most here believe in evolution that doesn't mean its true, either. Nice false dichotomy there.

It appears that the point missed over your head: noboy has provided any evidence that the Swedish authorities would be behind this, but it appears to be Dominus Aethos's first instinct that it MUST be those nefarious authorities. This is indeed Sweden we are talking about: as far as I know, the level of corruption in Sweden is minimal and their government is transparent almost to a fault.

You may trot out your self-righteous comparison to creationism all you want, the fact still is that there was no proof that the Swedish government or any authority within it would want to destroy the man in question, or his reputation.

Good heaven, it's SWEDEN, not some Third World shithole, some dictatorship or USA as imagined by the board population.

Aaaand an appeal to... what exactly? Warm fuzzy feelings about Sweden? (I also like the "its not as bad as the US so it must be perfect" bit.)

I'm sorry that you cannot comprehend that some governments are not, infact, dictatorships or overly interested in ruining people's lives. What a bleak world you must live in. However, Sweden still remains a reputable country where the rule of law seems to hold sway and the government isn't out to kill, torture or "vanish" any dissidents, so claiming so would require some hard evidence.

And I see that you failed to notice that I said "or USA AS IMAGINED by the board population". Which means precisely that: the United States, as imagined by the board population where racist and violent cops, evil military and corrupt officials do whatever they want. For some reason I imagine the US to be something different, but you clearly failed to note the last part of the sentence.

[haard]

Were the molestation charges dropped as well, or just the rape charges?

. . .

Seriously? It's in the first line. The warrant was for both charges.

Swedish authorities have cancelled an arrest warrant for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange on accusations of rape and molestation.

Well, the charges for molestation are not dropped. The warrant was for the rape charge, the investigation on molestation charges is ongoing.
For those who read swedish, source

[cosmicalstorm]

Such a juicy scandal. If the rumor mill is to be trusted he went to bed with a radical feminist, the same woman who invited him to Sweden and who wrote adoring posts about him on Twitter (which are now erased, along with her blog and so on) who also specializes in sexual abuse cases, possibly the whole incident boils down to him refusing to wear a condom during his moment of orgasm
This is looking less like a massive conspiracy and more like something really embarrassing that could come right out of a night out drinking with the people from work.

[cosmicalstorm]

From Guardian, bold parts mine.

The founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, was himself the subject of a rapidly spreading online story when news cascaded across the internet for several hours at the weekend mistakenly saying he was being sought in Sweden on rape charges.

Before Stockholm's chief prosecutor made clear on Saturday afternoon that Assange was in fact neither charged with rape nor due to be arrested, the story had spread, generating more than 1,200 articles, available through internet news search, that received more than 1m hits.

"It was 7am when a friend who is Swedish and has been out on the net told me about the allegations," Assange told Stockholm daily newspaper Aftonbladet, which has hired him as a columnist : "It was shocking. I have been accused of various things in recent years, but nothing so serious as this."

He said none of his sexual relations had ever been built on anything other than totally consensual activity.

The preliminary allegation, made on Friday night, and not further investigated at that stage, was apparently leaked by police to a tabloid in Stockholm, which published dramatic claims on Saturday morning that Assange was to be arrested.

The Swedish Prosecution Authority todaysaid an "on-call" prosecutor issued an arrest warrant for Assange late on Friday, only to see it revoked the next day by a higher-ranked prosecutor who found no grounds to suspect him of rape.

"The prosecutor who took over the case had more information, and that is why she made a different assessment than the on-call prosecutor," said Karin Rosander, a spokeswoman for the authority.

One of two women involved told Aftonbladet in an interview published today that she had never intended Assange to be charged with rape. She was quoted as saying: "It is quite wrong that we were afraid of him. He is not violent and I do not feel threatened by him."

Speaking anonymously, she said each had had voluntary relations with Assange: "The responsibility for what happened to me and the other girl lies with a man who had attitude problems with women."

Sources close to the woman said that issues arose during the relationships about Assange's willingness to use condoms.

In her interview, she dismissed the idea, seized on by many conspiracy theorists that 'dirty tricks' lay behind the rape allegations, because of WikiLeaks' defiance of the US government. She said: "The charges against Assange are of course not orchestrated by the Pentagon."

Swedish prosecutors said today that a decision would be taken early this week whether to continue investigations into lesser possible charges against the nomadic Assange, which he also denies.

Some of WikiLeaks' computer servers are currently based in Sweden, and he has sought to shelter under Sweden's journalistic source protection laws for the organisation's crusade to promote worldwide leaking of information. Assange and his co-activists at WikiLeaks have refused US defense department demands that they cease publishing thousands of leaked military documents about the US war in Afghanistan, and making accusations of murder of civilians.

US generals have accused WikiLeaks of wholesale leaking that does too little to protect informants and the identities of Afghan villagers who co-operated with US and British forces.

Assange has riposted that it is US soldiers who have "blood on their hands" and he is seeking to edit sensitive files before posting them online.

A former US army intelligence analyst, Bradley Manning, is in military custody at Quantico, Virginia, accused of turning over to outsiders a huge quantity of classified material which subsequently appeared on WikiLeaks. Bradley reportedly told fellow computer enthusiasts that he was horrified by what he found.

[Edi]

The Swedish authorities have opened an investigation into the actions of the prosecutor who made the statements to the press about the warrant and named Assange. She will probably face charges of professional misconduct, because Swedish data protection laws would have required her to keep Assange's identity hidden. The reson is because he is only a suspect at this point, not proven guilty and convicted.

[Flagg]

The Swedish authorities have opened an investigation into the actions of the prosecutor who made the statements to the press about the warrant and named Assange. She will probably face charges of professional misconduct, because Swedish data protection laws would have required her to keep Assange's identity hidden. The reson is because he is only a suspect at this point, not proven guilty and convicted.

Wait, you mean in Sweden both the accuser and the accused are both allowed to remain anonymous until formal charges are laid out? What a novel concept.

[Fire Fly]

Sweden reopens inquiry

Sweden Reopens Inquiry of WikiLeaks Founder
By DAVID JOLLY
Published: September 1, 2010

PARIS — The Swedish authorities announced Wednesday that they were reopening an investigation of rape allegations against Julian Assange, the founder of the WikiLeaks Web site, saying there was “reason to believe that a crime has been committed.”

The announcement by Marianne Ny, director of public prosecution, marked yet another reversal in the convoluted case. Last month, Swedish prosecutors confirmed they had issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Assange on rape and molestation allegations, but dropped the rape charge after saying it was unfounded.

But on Wednesday, Ms. Ny said in a statement that “considering information available at present, my judgment is that the classification of the crime is rape.”

She said additional investigation was needed “before a final decision can be made.”

A WikiLeaks spokesman said Mr. Assange, who has maintained his innocence, was unavailable for comment.

Leif Silbersky, Mr. Assange’s lawyer, said his client was innocent. Mr. Assange was questioned Monday by the police, Mr. Silbersky said, “and they said nothing about rape.”

Mr. Assange, a 39-year-old Australian, was initially investigated Aug. 20 on charges of rape and molestation after separate complaints from two young women who had separate sexual relationships with Mr. Assange. The rape inquiry was dropped within 24 hours, but the women who brought the complaints appealed for the investigation to be reinstated.

According to accounts the women gave to police and friends, Swedish officials said, they had consensual sexual encounters with Mr. Assange that became nonconsensual. One woman said that Mr. Assange had ignored her appeals to stop after a condom broke. The other woman said that she and Mr. Assange had begun a sexual encounter using a condom, but that Mr. Assange did not comply with her appeals for him to stop when it was no longer in use.

Prosecutors have continued to investigate the lesser charge of molestation, which covers a wide range of offenses and carries penalties of up to a year in prison, and they said Wednesday that they were expanding that inquiry to consider charges of sexual coercion and sexual molestation.

Mr. Assange has said the charges are politically motivated.

WikiLeaks, an online whistle-blowing organization, came under fire in July after posting tens of thousands of classified American documents related to the war in Afghanistan. The site has said it plans to post thousands of “more explosive” documents soon.

Swedish authorities have dismissed suggestions from Mr. Assange that the allegations were part of a program of “dirty tricks” against the site, saying there was no evidence to suggest any outside influences had prompted the two women to make their accusations against Mr. Assange.

One of the women, identified only as “Ms. A,” gave an interview to the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet on Aug. 22 in which she said, “The charges against Assange are, of course, not orchestrated by the Pentagon. The responsibility for what happened to me and the other girl lies with a man who has a twisted attitude to women and a problem with taking ‘no’ for an answer.”

The United States Justice Department has said it is considering the possibility of criminal charges against WikiLeaks and Mr. Assange for disclosing the war records.

John F. Burns contributed reporting from Stockholm, Sweden, and William Rankin from Paris.

[Phantasee]

CNN's headline ticker puts it this way: Sweden reopens WikiLeaks rape case.

Just a little misleading, no? If they aren't trying to influence public opinion, why can't they use "Assange" instead of WikiLeaks? Makes it sound like the whole organization is a bunch of rapists.

[Kanastrous]

That may just be CNN deciding - probably correctly - that if they don't mention the WikiLeaks connection very few of their viewers will have any clue why this particular case is receiving the attention and so many others aren't.

[Marcus Aurelius]

I can't see how these charges could lead to a conviction, though. In both cases sex started as consensual and apparently there was no physical or independently verifiable mental coercion involved, so no physical evidence or independent witnesses against Assage exist. It's essentially a case of "He said / She said" and in such cases the court will have to find in favor of the defendant.

[Ritterin Sophia]

Except that is what a number of cases come down to.

[Vympel]

Fixed the title again, lol.