1. Mediaite
  2. Gossip Cop
  3. Geekosystem
  4. Styleite
  5. SportsGrid
  6. The Mary Sue
  7. The Jane Dough
  8. The Braiser
The Internet Is Serious Business

Julian Assange Accused of Rape by Swedish Authorities [UPDATED]

by Susana Polo | 11:25 am, August 21st, 2010

A warrant has been issued for the arrest of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, on suspicion of rape and molestation.  Swedish authorities are calling for him to contact the police for questioning.  Assange’s first comment on the accusations (seen above) linked to the Swedish tabloid Expressen, who apparently broke the story.  Later tweets denied the accusations and with the implication that they were part of an effort to damage Wikileaks itself.

Wikileaks’ official response can be found here, and Assange’s personal response here.

So, yes, the timing is highly convenient.  But you know what isn’t convenient?  Being raped.  If he were a politician, we would say that Mr. Assange should step carefully about these charges, and make sure that he does not treat them with an air of flippancy.

But he’s not a politician, so he doesn’t really have an obligation to, and can refer to the allegations as “dirty tricks” without fear of damaging his future job prospects.  If he’s guilty, well that’ll be awful, for his victims, supporters, and the cause of internet freedom.

And if he is truly being framed in order to hinder Wikileaks, that’s just great, but then it is Swedish authorities that are diminishing the crime of rape by false accusation, which is all kinds of screwed up.  Dirty tricks indeed.

(via The Guardian.)

UPDATE: The warrant, issued late on Friday, has been canceled.  From the BBC:

The Swedish Prosecution Authority website said the chief prosecutor had come to the decision that Mr Assange was not suspected of rape but did not give any further explanation.

Read the full article here.

  • niiseh

    The swedish… government? The accusations were made by two women, the prosecutor decided that the accusations warranted calling Assange in for questioning (something that has later been changed), the prosecutors fucked up by for some reason making it public (if fake, intentional and part of the mudslinging, if not fake probably still intentional and just free mud for the mudslinging campaign) but implying that our (swedish) government is involved seems doubtful.

    I’ll admit that I’m biased and find the accusations a bit too convenient.

    I’ll thank you for keeping Sweden and Switzerland apart by the way.

  • Susana Polo

    Please accept my apologies for a dumb but unintentional typo. I definitely agree that the charges seemed much too convenient, but if I were a victim in an identical situation I wouldn’t want the press trivializing my experience simply because its facts were too “convenient,” and so I attempted (perhaps unsuccessfully) to walk a neutral line.
    For every false accusation of rape there are people who cannot get anyone to believe that they are actually victims; both situations are tragic and fundamentally unhelpful.

  • niiseh

    It’s incredibly tragic when a rape victim cannot find anyone that believes that they’ve been assaulted, which is why I find false accusations in these cases especially disgusting as they tend to reduce the credibility of real victims. I do hope that he’s not guilty but I hope that the investigation is thorough regardless.

    There is of course the other side of the coin where anyone accused of it never really can get free of the accusations which lends to the conspiracy theory as they would be attacking his personal morals, if true it would most likely be the single most reviled thing he can do.


Abrams Media Network click here for advertising opportunities

© 2012 Geekosystem, LLC | About Us | Advertise | Newsletter | Jobs | Privacy | User Agreement | Disclaimer | Power Grid FAQ | Contact | Archives | RSS RSS
Dan Abrams, Founder | Power Grid by Sound Strategies | Hosting by Datagram