Rape Warrant for Wikileaks Founder Canceled in Sweden

By Jeralyn, Section Foreign Affairs
Posted on Sat Aug 21, 2010 at 10:26:32 AM EST
Tags: Wikileaks, Julian Assange (all tags)

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Update: Rape warrant canceled.

An arrest warrant has been issued in Sweden for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. He is being sought for questioning on allegations of rape and molestation in two cases.

Assange says the allegations are the beginning of a "dirty tricks" cammpaign intended as retribution for his publishing the Pentagon Afghan war files on the Wikileaks website.

Assange is Australian and doesn't have a permanent address. He was in Sweden last week on Wikileaks business.

Assange, an Australian citizen, was in Sweden last week to apply for a publishing certificate to make sure the website, which has servers in Sweden, can take full advantage of Swedish laws protecting whistleblowers. He also gave a talk about his work and defended the decision by Wikileaks to publish the Afghan war logs.

Assange's current whereabouts are unknown, but some say he is still in Sweden. On the allegations [More....]:

Prosecutor Maria Haljebo Kjellstrand told the TT news agency that the rape was allegedly committed at Enkoping, near Stockholm, and an assault on another woman in the capital.

Via CNN, which asks whether the allegations are part of a smear campaign by the U.S.: Here is a rough translation of the report that appeared in Expressen in Sweden.

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Rape Warrant for Wikileaks Founder Canceled in Sweden | 21 comments (21 topical)

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The charges have been withdrawn (5.00 / 2) (#1)
by polizeros on Sat Aug 21, 2010 at 10:50:32 AM EST

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38797243

: curiouser (none / 0) (#3)
by Capt Howdy on Sat Aug 21, 2010 at 10:55:32 AM EST

and curiouser

: The charge for rape has been withdrawn (none / 0) (#26)
by Nemi on Sat Aug 21, 2010 at 03:45:30 PM EST

But investigation into the allegations of sexual assault ("sexuellt ofredande") continues.

you know (5.00 / 3) (#2)
by Capt Howdy on Sat Aug 21, 2010 at 10:55:03 AM EST

this guy may be as guilty as sin but when I heard this I was channel surfing between Msnbc and Watchmen.
for a minute I got confused where I was this sounds so much like something that would have happened in that horrific thru the looking glass universe where Nixon is serving his 5th term.

this is one hell of a coincidence.

11th. (5.00 / 2) (#10)
by Ben Masel on Sat Aug 21, 2010 at 12:06:46 PM EST

: it took me (none / 0) (#32)
by Capt Howdy on Sun Aug 22, 2010 at 01:56:59 PM EST

26 hours to get this

Yeh, and Ellsberg (5.00 / 1) (#13)
by Cream City on Sat Aug 21, 2010 at 12:32:46 PM EST

was crazy.

Riiiiiight.

The fact is (5.00 / 1) (#25)
by Harry Saxon on Sat Aug 21, 2010 at 02:17:42 PM EST

Delay is still under indictment, although I wouldn't be on a trial taking place after this year:

Still, DeLay's legal problems are not over. He and two associates face money laundering and conspiracy charges in Texas connected to 2002 state legislative elections. A court hearing in that case is set for next week.
Prosecutors say DeLay and his co-defendants funneled $190,000 in corporate money through the Republican National Committee in Washington, then back to state legislative candidates in violation of state law.
"I still have a trial to go through," DeLay said, referring to that case. "I'm hoping to win that. I know I will."

: Correct (none / 0) (#29)
by Jeralyn on Sat Aug 21, 2010 at 04:48:05 PM EST

DeLay has not been cleared in TX so please everyone stay on topic which is Wikileaks.

Maybe he can call (1.00 / 1) (#4)
by jimakaPPJ on Sat Aug 21, 2010 at 11:11:14 AM EST

Delay and Gonzales and find out where to go to get his reputation back.

The road does travel both ways.

No (5.00 / 1) (#7)
by squeaky on Sat Aug 21, 2010 at 11:37:00 AM EST

You must mean Rove, Cheney, and his henchman Libby. They are the ones who were the leak masters.

Of course they did much more damage than Mr Wikileaks did, as they shut down cia ops in Iran.


Except Delay is still under investigation (none / 0) (#5)
by Harry Saxon on Sat Aug 21, 2010 at 11:27:04 AM EST

in TX.


Ritter (none / 0) (#6)
by observed on Sat Aug 21, 2010 at 11:27:38 AM EST

They both fully deserve their reputations (none / 0) (#14)
by ruffian on Sat Aug 21, 2010 at 12:36:50 PM EST

I object to the lack of prosecutions, but realize that perhaps the prosecutors did not like their odds of getting a conviction, no matter how much wrong Delay and Gonzales did.


When you investigate for years and years (1.00 / 0) (#17)
by jimakaPPJ on Sat Aug 21, 2010 at 12:45:31 PM EST

and can't make a case then either you should never have started or should have quit much, much earlier.

As an add on I do not like the increasing use of the "lied to the FBI" charge. That allows too much of the "what did he know and when did he know it" speculation. It also is shutting down cooperation by witnesses who don't want to get shot in the cross fire.


: stop hijacking the thread (5.00 / 1) (#27)
by Jeralyn on Sat Aug 21, 2010 at 04:44:08 PM EST

This is about wikileaks

Elections Have Consequences (none / 0) (#11)
by Dan the Man on Sat Aug 21, 2010 at 12:15:33 PM EST

Heh

The Girl Who Kicked the Hacker's Nest? (none / 0) (#16)
by ruffian on Sat Aug 21, 2010 at 12:42:44 PM EST

Perhaps someone has been reading too much Swedish fiction. Or maybe truth is stranger than fiction. Stay tuned....

: I was thinking earlier (5.00 / 1) (#28)
by Jeralyn on Sat Aug 21, 2010 at 04:46:47 PM EST

where's Michael Blomquist when we need him....

my bet: (none / 0) (#30)
by cpinva on Sat Aug 21, 2010 at 06:50:52 PM EST

everything gets dropped, before the prosecutor is forced to put a "witness" under oath. i suspect they frown on suborning perjury in sweden too, especially by officers of the court.

WSWS: New provocation against WikiLeaks (none / 0) (#33)
by Andreas on Mon Aug 23, 2010 at 12:15:08 AM EST

The World Socialist Web Site denounces the ongoing campaign by the US government and its military and intelligence agencies against WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange. The rape charges against Assange, announced Friday by Swedish prosecutors and then withdrawn Saturday, bear all the hallmarks of a US-inspired provocation against the Internet-based organization in retaliation for its exposure of US war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq.

New provocation against WikiLeaks
23 August 2010