Sweden seeks international arrest warrant for Wikileaks founder Assange

Swedish prosecutors seek an international arrest warrant for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in an investigation over charges of "rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion."

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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bjacques

What efergus3 said. While Assange is in a Swedish court fighting the rape charges, the US will certainly file their own charges and request extradition. Sweden, like a lot of former Old Europe, seems to be into American-style “reforms” and teabaggery these days. It’s no great leap for them to “cooperate” in the War on Terr.

The Russians, probably not. If they felt aggrieved, Assange’s balls would be in a jar on Medv^H^H^H^HPutin’s desk by now.

A rape charge is gonna stick one way or the other, so Assange might as well play it straight, go to court and get a very good lawyer. If the accusers are lying or crazy or paide by the CIA (unlikely) then let that come out in court. Because there aren’t too many places in the world that are nice to live in, respect freedom of information and like accused rapists hanging around.
GeekMan

Yet another generation of great thinkers led astray by the idiotic requirements of their penises. *sigh*

There was an episode of Red Dwarf that I’m quite fond of, where the bumbling crew finds themselves in a time-travel scenario where they accidentally prevent the assassination of JFK. So JFK’s presidency continues but ends in disgrace when he’s outed as a womanizer.
Anonymous

You’re right, the women lodging rape complaints are lying whores….wait, haven’t I heard that some place before? Oh, that’s right, just about every time a woman places a rape claim, someone on the internet says it. Got it.
teflon

Prosecutor Marianne Ny has had “International” police connections with specific experience in extra-national sexual abuse extradition and prosecution since at least 2008. It seems to me that someone with this experience and these connections and could easily be under the influence/assistance of certain parties hostile to Wikileaks. Add to this the ‘condom break’ rape accusations, and this starts to look like a very cleverly engineered honey-trap to me.
kc0bbq

Or, he may just be a rapist. If there’s enough evidence to convict, there will always be people who will claim conspiracy because they like what he does for a job.

So far all we have is an arrest warrant.
Teller

DikiLeaks.
Anonymous

My my my , what a boring trap the government departments have attempted to get Assange on. Why have they closed all funding access to Wikileaks and acc, SEX CRIME FROM TWO WOMEN WHOSE STATEMENT REMAIN IN QUESTION . Why is Wikileaks been closed on on the grounds of a irrelevant charge against Assange.
If this is not pure evidence of a set up then I dont know what is. World stop these politicians abusing power now. Julian we are behind you.
Jetong

Regarding comments like “They really should make up their minds”, “no convincing evidence that Assange has done anything wrong”, etcetera:

“The allegations against Assange for a total of five crimes: rape in August in EnkÃ¶ping, two counts of sexual assault in Stockholm and one in EnkÃ¶ping and a case of duress in Stockholm.”

Thats not just “European countries to not falsify charges against him for being part of a controversial organization”.

http://www.dn.se/nyheter/sverige/julian-assange-haktad-i-sin-franvaro-1.1210996 (swedish).

Idiots. -ok if you appreciate his calling/work etc but come on – hes probobly “male chauvinist” or whatever you want to call it.
Oskar

I hate that this is the guy that is the public face of WikiLeaks. I think WikiLeaks is a necessary thing, especially in this era of “every single thing has to be classified”. But you know what, Assange is a total sleazeball, always has been. As a Swede, I’m glad that he probably won’t be returning here.
- Anonymous
  
  I have come to realize that the world needs idiots and sleazeballs and crazy people. Occasionally the nuts of the world have a point. They rail against the system and break rules and what happens is smart people, cunning people (typically lawyers or politicians) who want things to change get behind the crazies and propel them into court challenges and protests and generally other behaviour that is too dangerous or annoying for regular folks to do. Then the smart people use the crazies as cannon fodder. If they win the court challenge or protest or war or whatever great. If the crazy ends up in jail, sued, bankrupt dead, the smart, cunning types just go and find a new crazy.
  - Anonymous
    
    To paraphrase you, “The cowardly and weak ‘public’ always pick their crazies to rally behind so they will be sacrificed at the altar of change instead of themselves, even if it means they end up paying the ultimate personal price, for the public’s cowardice. So the public can have change at no extra cost to themselves.”
    
    Most rational people would agree with your assessment.
    
    In this case, you should note one important distinction, however. That without Assange, civilization would long after be fast asleep. That the power structures had been perpetrating their crimes essentially by conducting them in total secrecy — thus depriving the public of essential facts, for at least another 1,000 years. Mankind owes Assange, an enormous debt of gratitude.
Blue

If he really was accused of ‘rape’ (or some variation thereof) wouldn’t they just try and get their hands on him and then question him and either lay charges or release him?

Instead they seem to be insisting on not talking to him, denying they want him at all and then saying different things in piblic and really dragging this out:

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/71m62q

Now why would they do that?
Anonymous

Apparently the circumstances of this ‘rape’ involve some very gray post-facto accusations made several days after apparently consensual sexual relations occurred between the two parties. But, regardless of the validity of the charges, Assange is being pretty clearly transformed into ‘Assange, accused rapist’
osmo

I’m a Sweden with a second opinion: Sure the man is a scumbag, that doesn’t change two facts about the whole thing.
1) Wikileaks was and is important at the moment. Not only as a leak of military atrocities but also as a form of test of internet freedom in a way.
2) The reason he (or wikileaks or whomever) chose Sweden as a “base” was because our journalistic laws give you the right to print almost anything and never risk arrests based on what you have said.

Both these things – the right of free speech on the internet and the journalistic laws are at this very moment being hollowed out by our government. No doubt you’ve read about Beatrice Ask and the internet surveillance laws coming next year.

Its absurd to me that one of the few things Sweden do great (alongside AllemansrÃ¤tten (which is unique in itself), the right to free education and health care) is being tossed away for some fictional terrorist threat.

Whatever Julian Assange is (my bet is on “rapist”) I’d prefer if we let him sit in our prison to be honest instead of tossing him to the wolves.
- Niklas
  
  AllemansrÃ¤tten is by no means unique to Sweden in particular, or Scandinavia in general. You can find it in most of Europe.
CrowCall

This prosecutorial flip-flopping is bizarre. Does anyone know exactly what leverage the USA has on Sweden? Because there is clearly a great deal of outside pressure being brought to bear on the Swedish legal system.
ncinerate

I’m not saying I wouldn’t consider video evidence as valid, I’m saying that it might appear suspicious. People don’t usually videotape or audio record their first hookup. Once would be unlikely, two separate instances would be -ridiculous-. If no such evidence exists then we are back to he says she says about something that may or may not have happened halfway through a consensual sex act.

In the end, innocent before proven guilty. The guy hasn’t been proven guilty of this crime, and the story behind the accusation leads me to believe it has no chance in hell of actually carrying through to a conviction.

Unless we are seriously in the dark about the -true- circumstances/evidence in this case, it feels very much like an assassination of character. The current “evidence” and case details they have publicly discussed is clearly not enough to come anywhere near a guilty verdict for any reasonable court.
- Anonymous
  
  Now you’re assuming Sweden has reasonable courts. I think you’ll find the first episode of Spectrial shows otherwise.
efergus3

After which he will be extradited to either the US or Russia.
Anonymous

Presumed.innocent.until.proven.guilty.

I know it is a tiresome tradition in this age where your opinions are as valid as my facts but we do practice it for a reason.
ncinerate

The whole thing stinks something awful.

He arrives in sweden to set up a safe haven for his website and organization under their easygoing laws. He is greeted by two “volunteer” swedish women who offer their assistance. These women then promptly jump into bed with him by their own free will.

In both instances, there is a “condom malfunction” (one claims the condom broke, the other explains there was a condom and then there wasn’t) and the women claim the sexual encounter became rape when he refused to stop having sex with them despite their pleas to stop once the condom was broken/no longer in use.

I doubt it. I seriously doubt it. I think Assange is a wierd person, but I seriously doubt he had double condom malfunction with two women in a short period of time under almost identical circumstances without something hinky-jinky going on.
Anonymous

Oh, I didn’t know he was working for the TSA…
ocschwar

They really should make up their minds.
dculberson

Maybe the plot is to make him dizzy from all the flip-flops on charges so he’ll fall over and maybe hurt himself.
Anonymous

This guy really needs to hook up with a real-world Lisbeth Salander to get to the bottom of the intrigue in intrigue that is aimed at him.
Anonymous

Except that there’s no convincing evidence that Assange has done anything wrong. Other than to expect European countries to not falsify charges against him for being part of a controversial organization. No offense Europe, but you are the US’s bitch in all things.

Why charge him on rape? I think it’s obvious. Sexual crimes almost always have people assuming guilty no matter what’s proven. Even if it never hits court, Assange’s reputation will suffer the same as if he were convicted. It’s pretty clear from the responses here that that tactic has already worked. Frankly, I’m surprised they didn’t get a 13 year old to try to have sex with him.
ncinerate

It’s ridiculous any way you slice it. What possible evidence could exist for or against these allegations beyond simple he says she says?

The women have admitted up front that the sex was initiated with their consent. It’s not like this guy was prowling the streets holding women down at knifepoint. Even if the entire story is absolutely 100% true, how do they hope to prove the allegations without reasonable doubt? You could say the case is stronger because there are two separate female accusers, but bring into the equation the fact that they likely know each other and were volunteering side-by-side. It’s not like these two women couldn’t have talked and worked out a similar story even if there was no government involvement (hell, maybe they realized assnage was “enjoying” both of them, or maybe there was a third woman who caused some jealousy/revenge). Bear in mind these accusations didn’t come out until after Assnage was long gone – what took them so long to come forward and why did they almost simultaneously come forward with similar stories? Why was there no immediate report of wrongdoing? Who knows, and that’s the point. Completely unprovable, right or wrong.

If on the other hand there -IS- some concrete proof (like, say, a video), that would bring in a whole slew of questions and would make me lean toward Honey Pot.
Niklas

Worth noting is that they seek him on “sannolika skÃ¤l“, which is the highest degree of probable cause used when an arrest is warranted. The highest degree is almost never used unless the defendant admits to the guilt before the trial.
- Anonymous
  
  @Niklas
  
  Not true and directly contradicted by your link. From the link
  ” Det krÃ¤vs nÃ¥got som ytterligare binder personen till brottet, exempelvis ett vittne eller teknisk bevisning.”
  
  Ie all it takes is a witness or technical proof in order to call it “sannolika” (means likely or probable). Assange might be guilty but so far there is no confession or even detailed charges. Nice try to convict him with conjecture though.
Anonymous

>> “rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion.”

Well if the whole WikiLeaks thing doesn’t work out, I hear the TSA is hiring.
Anonymous

“Why was there no immediate report of wrongdoing? Who knows, and that’s the point. Completely unprovable, right or wrong.

If on the other hand there -IS- some concrete proof (like, say, a video), that would bring in a whole slew of questions and would make me lean toward Honey Pot.”

So in other words, you wouldn’t believe it’s rape regardless of the amount of evidence? No video and it’s too little evidence? A video and it’s “too much” evidence?

If I am ever accused of a crime, I totally want you on my jury…
Anonymous

Keeping an open mind on the question on whether this is politically motivated as Sweden finds Julian too hot too handle, or entrapment, or something Julian brought on himself. The truth seems quite obscured by shifting stands.
Hools Verne

Could be a helicopter. I’d like to be able to place that aircraft before I decided one way or another.
Hools Verne

Oops. Wrong thread. I guess I should say that Assange seems like a scumbag that Wikileaks would be better off without to save face.
Brewtown

I recently heard someone describe him as “this generation’s Roman Polanski”. Can’t think of a more apt description…
- Michael Smith
  
  I recently heard someone describe him as “this generation’s Roman Polanski”
  I thought Roman Polanski was this generation’s Roman Polanski. Assange isn’t Roman Polanski because the women he slept with were adults and they both know that “cuddliness” means.
SteveNZ

Sounds like a pretty standard honey trap. Two women show up as “volunteers”, then “volunteer” for something entirely different, then lay complaints. It’s been going on for years — the Soviets tried to blackmail a British MP with pictures they shot of him with a KGB hooker in a Moscow hotel room. The Israelis used a hooker to lure the guy who exposed their nuclear weapons program into going to Rome, where he was kidnapped and thrown in jail for decades. Assange gets smeared in Sweden, which doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the Swedes who’ve organised the smear, but they’re certainly playing along with it.

A few months ago there was a correspondent on Salon who was writing that “everybody knows” Assange is gay. Seems that particular smear, if you can call it one, didn’t stick. So now this. What a surprise. Someone should open a book on what he’ll be accused of next. I’d put $10 on “he’s in the pay of the Chinese”. Or Bin Laden. Or Satan.