Not so rapey after all: Sexual assault investigation into Julian Assange dropped

 

My original piece on this matter was an attempt to cut through all the disinformation about Assange at the time based on the claims repeated in the mainstream media that Julian Assange was up on a sexual assault charge having been accused by two of his amours. I now have no qualms acknowledging he was fitted up for revealing the homicidal activities of leading governments. Furthermore, it transpires that his accusers had gone to the authorities to demand HIV tests, not to get him charged with rape. It's wrong to attack the women as they too were being fitted up. The horrific news that the Home Secretary has signed off on his extradition to the country that planned his assassination for doing his journalistic job makes me even more angry that some of us were suckered into this for even a minute.

It has been reported that they asked police to track him Assange down, not because he did anything illegal to them but in order for him to provide a blood sample to ensure he did not have HIV/AIDS.
Police are said to have advised the women that Assange could not be forced to undergo such a test without criminal charges being brought against him, before advising them that the matter would be referred to a prosecutor – a referral which many believe occurred solely due to the fact Assange was wanted by the United States for leaking classified information, including those of atrocities committed by the US defence force.
The gist of their criticism was that the efforts to extradite Assange were not because he committed sexual assault, but in order to make it easier for the United States to get their hands on him.

Edit: Sidney Criminal Lawyers 2019: Sexual Assault Investigation into Julian Assange Dropped

* * *

 Read the transcripts of the police interviews here. Thanks to Mark Anthony France for the tip.

Wikileaks Assange sex smear: no condom or not taking no for an answer?

"I'm not bovvered." The Swedish prosecution puts up an appallingly weak defence in the above Al Jazeera interview. Has to be seen to be believed.

More about the dropped sex charge against Julian Assange raising suspicion that this is the US authorities pursuing their vendetta through dirty tricks.

Consensual sex may have taken a turn when Assange neglected to use a condom. Amid subsequent health checks and accusations, Assange was never asked for his side of the story.

At the moment, I'm hoping this intelligent and socially-aware man did not coerce his partners into having unprotected sex — which is a far cry from rape but a violation nevertheless. I'm waiting to see if he emerges as yet one more progressive figure who can't apply his high principles to his personal life, with the likes of whom I have found the left to be littered. Certainly, the timing is most convenient for the Pentagon. Julian, I am willing you to come through this with your reputation intact, because I can't imagine someone in your position being so stupid as to do what these women have claimed. And we need people like you.

In Nick Davies's report, Assange says, "I never, neither in Sweden nor in any other country, had sex with someone in a way that is not built on total consent from both sides." On the other hand, one of the two women says he "has a twisted attitude to women and a problem with taking 'no' for an answer." I do question, though, why these women who purport to be supporters and who freely entered into sexual contact with him exactly at a time when he is a hunted man, are wreaking maximum destruction. It's not as if he has a track-record in these matters. Prosecutors are due to decide today on their immediate course of action.

However it turns out, damage has been done to the man who has done more than most to expose the hypocritical murderous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Cui bono?

UPDATE: NYT report here. If it does transpire that Assange was merely a two-timing creep who got caught out by his lovers, then the women are not only guilty of trivialising serious misogyny and are no sistahs in any definition of mine, but they have discredited a courageous organisation which is trying to halt mass murder.

UPDATE: From Craig Murray, no stranger to the sex smear himself.

The women's story.

Anna Ardin:alleged links with CIA here and here.

No condom, no freedom? China should offer political asylum to Assange.

Even better, China should nominate Assange for Nobel Peace Prize.

Wikileaks' Julian Assange victim of dirty tricks rape accusation

Utter bastards! We knew US officials were out to get Julian Assange of Wikileaks, a hero of our sad times, but this scrapes the bottom of the barrel and breaks through to a whole new bottom we never knew existed.

One worry was that the US would kidnap Assange through the blandly named "rendition" process for his public service in exposing the murders of civilians in the Afghanistan conflict. But now the Swedes have issued a warrant for the arrest of the Australian for rape! So if they can't shut him up by fair means or foul, the authorities will smear his reputation in a plot riffing on The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

John Pilger documents Assange's brave work in a recent article:

In file after file, the brutalities echo the colonial past. From Malaya and Vietnam to Bloody Sunday and Basra, little has changed. The difference is that today there is an extraordinary way of knowing how faraway societies are routinely ravaged in our name. WikiLeaks has acquired records of six years of civilian killing in both Afghanistan and Iraq, of which those published in the Guardian are a fraction.

What Pilger makes clear is that Assange held back on papers that would endanger anyone, in the absence of any help from the US authorities who refused to even acknowledge his request to say which files jeopardised people's lives. Because of this, many files are still not in the public domain and yet the very forces who have killed innocent people accuse Assange of endangering lives. How perverse is that?

Read The New Yorker's profile of Julian Assange.

UPDATE: Johan from Sweden has just left a comment here where he says something very interesting:

The two women actually went to police in order to try to make sure Assange was NOT accused of rape!
Because the prosecutors had decided to go for a rape case without asking the supposed victims! This is not the first time prosecutors in Sweden have taken orders from Americans, a similar thing happened with the famous Pirate Bay case some year ago which is a small issue for the US compared to this. What they did that time was to say that the Pirate Bay was full of child porn, even though they couldn't actually find any. Also the standards for sentencing someone for rape have often been criticized in Sweden for not really being appropriate. In many cases the accused has to prove his innocence rather than the other way around. So it's a pretty obvious choice of crime if you want to throw dirt on someone in Sweden.

UPDATE: News is breaking on CNN, Sky and others (16:30 Saturday) that the arrest warrant has been revoked and the prosecutor says there is no reason to believe Assange committed rape.

Wikileaks' Julian Assange victim of dirty tricks rape accusation

Utter bastards! We knew US officials were out to get Julian Assange of Wikileaks, a hero of our sad times, but this scrapes the bottom of the barrel and breaks through to a whole new bottom we never knew existed.

One worry was that the US would kidnap Assange through the blandly named "rendition" process for his public service in exposing the murders of civilians in the Afghanistan conflict. But now the Swedes have issued a warrant for the arrest of the Australian for rape! So if they can't shut him up by fair means or foul, the authorities will smear his reputation in a plot riffing on The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

John Pilger documents Assange's brave work in a recent article:

In file after file, the brutalities echo the colonial past. From Malaya and Vietnam to Bloody Sunday and Basra, little has changed. The difference is that today there is an extraordinary way of knowing how faraway societies are routinely ravaged in our name. WikiLeaks has acquired records of six years of civilian killing in both Afghanistan and Iraq, of which those published in the Guardian are a fraction.

What Pilger makes clear is that Assange held back on papers that would endanger anyone, in the absence of any help from the US authorities who refused to even acknowledge his request to say which files jeopardised people's lives. Because of this, many files are still not in the public domain and yet the very forces who have killed innocent people accuse Assange of endangering lives. How perverse is that?

Read The New Yorker's profile of Julian Assange.

UPDATE: Johan from Sweden has just left a comment here where he says something very interesting:

The two women actually went to police in order to try to make sure Assange was NOT accused of rape!
Because the prosecutors had decided to go for a rape case without asking the supposed victims! This is not the first time prosecutors in Sweden have taken orders from Americans, a similar thing happened with the famous Pirate Bay case some year ago which is a small issue for the US compared to this. What they did that time was to say that the Pirate Bay was full of child porn, even though they couldn't actually find any. Also the standards for sentencing someone for rape have often been criticized in Sweden for not really being appropriate. In many cases the accused has to prove his innocence rather than the other way around. So it's a pretty obvious choice of crime if you want to throw dirt on someone in Sweden.

UPDATE: News is breaking on CNN, Sky and others (16:30 Saturday) that the arrest warrant has been revoked and the prosecutor says there is no reason to believe Assange committed rape.