Image by New Media Days via FlickrWikileaks Julian Assange rape charge for not using condoms : Zennie Abraham : City BrightsThe Worldwide pursuit of Wikileaks Editor-In-Chief Julian Assange because of both a rape charge in Sweden and his release of now hundreds of thousands of classified documents, is due to a detail that must be reviewed.
According to The Raw Story and Crikey, Swedish prosecutors charge that while Mr. Assange did have consentual sex with his two accusers, he allegedly did not use a condom, which, according to The Herald Sun, is against Swedish law. Thus, Swedish authorities are in the process of re-issuing the once-closed arrest warrant for Assange.
A person by the name of James D. Catlin, a lawyer in Melbourne, Australia marked as having represented Julian Assange for a month in October, said to Raw Story's Daniel Tencer that the Swedish authorities are "making it up as they go along." Here's part of what Catlin wrote today in Crikey.com:
Apparently having consensual sex in Sweden without a condom is punishable by a term of imprisonment of a minimum of two years for rape. That is the basis for a reinstitution of rape charges against WikiLeaks figurehead Julian Assange that is destined to make Sweden and its justice system the laughing stock of the world and dramatically damage its reputation as a model of modernity....
The women here are near to and over 30 and have international experience, some of it working in Swedish government embassies. There is no suggestion of drugs nor identity concealment. Far from it. Both women boasted of their celebrity connection to Assange after the events that they would now see him destroyed for....
The phenomena of social networking through the internet and mobile phones constrains Swedish authorities from augmenting the evidence against Assange because it would look even less credible in the face of tweets by Anna Ardin and SMS texts by Sofia Wilen boasting of their respective conquests after the “crimesâ€.
In the case of Ardin it is clear that she has thrown a party in Assange's honour at her flat after the "crime" and tweeted to her followers that she is with the “the world’s coolest smartest people, it's amazing!". Go on the internet and see for yourself. That Ardin has sought unsuccessfully to delete these exculpatory tweets from the public record should be a matter of grave concern. That she has published on the internet a guide on how to get revenge on cheating boyfriends ever graver. The exact content of Wilén’s mobile phone texts is not yet known but their bragging and exculpatory character has been confirmed by Swedish prosecutors. Niether Wilen's nor Ardin's texts complain of rape.
Thus, the two accusers, Anna Ardin and Sofia Wilen are known to Catlin and now the World, as this is the first time I have seen two publications mention the women by name. In the case of Anna Ardin her Twitter account is still very much active to this writing, which, while this blog will not link to it, is quite a surprise considering the situation.
Overall this new information confirms what this blogger claimed in August, that the rape charges read of a smear campaign. This is what I wrote then:
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who's website has over 70,000 classified documents related to the War in Afghanistan, has been charged with alleged rape in Sweden. But a new item of information strongly indicates the report may be nothing more than a false claim.
As reported earlier at Zennie62.com, a translation from the Swedish tabloid Expressen claims that two women, one in her 20s and the other in her 30s, came forward to police. But read of the initial report in the tabloid Expressen indicates that the charges amount to heresay evidence without a real claim as there's no official report.
The "charges" that now amount to "heresay evidence" surround the alleged non-use of a condom while having consensual sex with both women. The real source of the overall problem, aside from the American Government's desire to silence him, seems to stem from Assange's apparent Playboy behavior in having sex with both women within four days. According to Catlin, failing to use a condom in Sweden can be considered rape.
The charge that a condom was not used is backed by The Daily Mail UK. In reporting the contents of the police report that was filed, this is noted by the news publication:
According to a police source: ‘They had a discussion and decided it would be OK to share the living space, then went out together for dinner.
'When they got back they had sexual relations, but there was a problem with the condom - it had split.
'She seemed to think that he had done this deliberately but he insisted that it was an accident.’
Whatever her views about the incident, she appeared relaxed and untroubled at the seminar the next day where Assange met Woman B, another pretty blonde, also in her 20s, but younger than Woman A.
In her police statement, Woman B described how, in the wake of the Afghanistan leaks, she saw Assange being interviewed on television and became instantly fascinated - some might even say obsessed.
She said she thought him ‘interesting, brave and admirable’.
Over the following two weeks she read everything she could find about him on the internet and followed news reports about his activities.
She discovered that he would be visiting Sweden to give a seminar, so she emailed the organisers to offer her help.
She registered to attend and booked the Saturday off work.
The Daily Mail account goes on to describe "Woman B" as "keen to get Julian's attention," but after proving a power source for his computer observed that he seemed more interested in the computer than her. Eventually, even though she didn't want to have sex with him, without a condom, they did.
The next morning, she reportedly went shopping to make breakfast for Julian.
The problem compounded when, after promising to call her, he did not do so and Assange allegedly did not answer calls from her.
Upset, Woman B managed to contact Woman A, whom she met at the same event after having sex with Julian. They "compared notes" and determined that both had unprotected sex with Assange. Fearing transmission of an STD, the claim was they both asked him to take a test and he refused. (Which calls into question the claim that he did not call or take calls from Woman B. Confusing.)
This is all according to The Daily Mail.
But then neither Arden nor Wilén complained to the police but rather “sought adviceâ€, a technique in Sweden enabling citizens to avoid just punishment for making false complaints. They sought advice together, having collaborated and irrevocably tainted each other’s evidence beforehand. Their SMS texts to each other show a plan to contact the Swedish newspaper Expressen beforehand in order to maximise the damage to Assange. They belong to the same political group and attended a public lecture given by Assange and organised by them. You can see Wilén on the YouTube video of the event even now.
From a bird's eye view there are still many unanswered questions. For example, why was it so important for Woman B to bring herself to Julian's attention the next day after he had sex with Woman A, who was at the same event, and why didn't Woman A act in any way at the event to give a hint that she'd been with Mr. Assange?
Also, neither woman complained to police, but approached them for advice, then, and this is confirmed by Swedish prosecutors in a number of publications, bragged about what's described as "their conquest."
Just a question?
Whatever the case, it's clear that American mainstream media has not gone into this level of depth on the Assange rape case story. As usual, we have to go to blogs and the European media, while Google News helps The Associated Press. Awful.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/abraham/detail?entry_id=78430#ixzz17SvD9LiL
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