Tuesday 21 August 2012

Julian Assange - an opinion (non-train related)

Ok this is what happened as far as I can tell.

11 Aug 2010 - Assange arrived in Sweden for various speaking engagements.

14 Aug 2010 - First incident with Miss A who was involved with arranging his trip. She claims that they had consensual sex during which the condom split but when asked to stop Assange carried on. She claims that he had ripped it intentionally

17 Aug 2010 - Second incident with Miss W who he met at a seminar on 14 Aug 2010. She claims that they had consensual sex with a condom and then Assange started unprotected sex while she was asleep, he claims she agreed to unprotected sex.

At some time over the next three days Miss A and Miss W discussed the incidents and went to the police.

18 Aug 2010 - Assange applied for a residence permit to live and work in Sweden believing that the country’s laws protecting “whistleblowers” would make it an excellent base for Wikileaks. It was turned down in October.

20 Aug 2010 - An arrest warrant is issued for sexual molestation(subject to a fine or maximum 2 years) with Miss A and minor rape (maximum sentence 4 years) with Miss W.

21 Aug 2010 - The arrest warrant was withdrawn as the Prosecutors did not feel that the rape charge would stand and while the molestation charge was valid it wasn’t serious enough to justify a warrant. The women’s lawyer lodged an appeal.

30 Aug 2010 - Assange is interviewed for an hour.

1 Sep 2010 - The Prosecutor who handles sexual crimes re-opened the rape case.

15 Sep 2010 - The Prosecutor told Assange’s lawyer that he could leave Sweden at any time. When the Prosecutor asked the lawyer to arrange a second interview he claimed that he was unable to contact Assange.

27 Sep 2010 - The Prosecutor informed his lawyer that an arrest warrant would be issued to force him to attend an interview. Assange left Sweden later that day

22 Oct 2010 – Wikleaks release 391,832 US Army field reports from the Iraq War.

18 Nov 2010 – The District Court of Stockholm authorised an arrest warrant on a charge of rape, a charge of duress/unlawful coercion and two charges sexual molestation which was later upheld by the Court of Appeal.

28 Nov 2010 – Wikileaks release the first 220 of 251,287 documents from US Embassies.

6 Dec 2010 – Scotland Yard informed Assange that a European Arrest Warrant had been received and he handed himself in the next morning.

16 Dec 2010 – Assange is granted £240k bail provided he stayed at his friend Vaughan Smith’s home in Norfolk. Smith, a journalist and founder of the Frontline Club, put up £20k along with Jemima Khan, Ken Loach, John Pilger, Michael Moore and others.

Note. I missed a stage, I added this later

7 Feb 2011 to 30 May 2012 – the extradition process goes through the Magistrates Court, which he lost, onto the High Court, which he won and then finally to the Supreme Court who overturned the High Court decision.

14 June 2012 – The Supreme Court rejected Assange’s bid to reopen his appeal but granted a two week grace period before extradition proceedings could begin during which time he could have made an appeal to the European Courts of Human Rights.

Back to the original

19 Jun 2012 – Assange walked into the Ecuadorian Embassy and claimed asylum. Smith said he is shocked that Assange had breached his bail conditions and that he stood to lose the £20k while Khan expressed her surprise and that she had expected him to confront his accusers.

At worst he’s guilty of minor rape under Swedish law, at best he’s no gentleman. Any woman stupid enough to agree to have sex with him knows what to expect but at least it won't cost them £20k to get screwed by Assange unlike Smith, Khan and the rest. Maybe the lesson to be learnt from all of this is that when the lady says “No” she means “NO”.

15 comments:

  1. "minor" rape. what an insulting concept.

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    1. That's the only English translation I could find of the Swedish term, "minor" as opposed to "gross/major rape" which I suppose we would call "aggravated" involves violence, threats of violence, multiple attackers, etc. Sorry I don't speak Swedish myself.

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  2. I wasn't having a go at you. The Swedes do have three classifications for rape, I believe; minor, ordinary and gross. It just boggles my mind a bit...

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    1. It probably makes it easier to get into court, if you just had one set definition of rape then a lot of cases might not meet the criteria and they’d either fail in court or the prosecution would have to go for a lesser charge like sexual molestation.

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  3. Had those women made a similar complaint at a British Police Station I doubt very much whether they’d have received as sympathetic treatment as they did in Sweden. Regardless of the name they give to the offence it shows a more enlightened approach to sexual assaults.

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  4. I believe our government have, in recent years, considered creating a crime called 'bodily trespass' with a lower burden of proof in an attempt to secure more convictions in cases where evidence was insufficient to prove rape. Assange, well, he might be the victim of a political manoeuvring, but if his wikileaks work was spurred by a desire for justice, then he should be willing to stand up and see justice done. This only goes to prove
    what I've always said, "The only safe sex is videotaping it." ;-)

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  5. Let me have a go at you as I feel you deserve it on this one. I have followed your blog for quite a while and find your comments on your passengers quite nice. You obviously treat them well and realise we all make mistakes, get drunk, do silly things, and it seems that you have helped protect some of them in the past. I have liked your blogs for that niceness and I have appreciated your political points of view.

    I am not the only woman to have been raped in the past, and in the not too distant past by a "friend" - something I am still reeling from. I find your comment really really offensive. None of us know what the "worst" is, because we're not lawyers and we're not the women who were in this situation. But I am disgusted that you side with the people that think this is a little infringement when it is actually, usually or always, a mortifying life-changing experience for millions of woman all over the world. I don't think that most men really have any idea what it is like when you are raped. Please read up on it and find out more, you deserve to be better than this.

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  6. If the two women were trying to set him up I think they’d have come up with more serious accusations.

    If the Swedish government had been trying to set him up then I don’t think they’d have rescinded the first arrest warrant then let him roam around free for five weeks and he would never have got out of the country.

    If Assange really believed that he was in danger of getting shipped off to the US then he’d have legged it the moment he heard that the rape charge was back on.

    He just doesn't want to tarnish his image of the noble champion of truth and freedomm with the idea that he's a sleazebag who jumps on women while they're asleep.

    TRT - Just tell me you don't post those videos online

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    1. Well... I've not had the opportunity to make any; that's where the plan falls down of course.

      I'd not considered the motive of preserving his "image". If that's what's behind his actions, it sounds like self-delusion, paranoia and a form of narcissistic personality disorder. I've never met the man, and I've seen very little footage of him, but from what I have seen, he does seem a bit creepy.

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  7. K8 - I think there has been some misunderstanding, which comment did you find offensive. I have never considered rape or any other sexual crime to be minor, too many of my female friends have been raped or assaulted for me to ever think of this as a "little infringement". My apologies if anyone thought else thought I meant otherwise, that was never my intention.

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  8. I took exception to your sentence "At worst he’s guilty of minor rape under Swedish law, at best he’s no gentleman." You and I really don't know that, because he has not been tried under Swedish or British law, because he has evaded it. The truth is, as far as we can tell, at best he is a rapist, at worst he is guilty of rape. There is no minor about it. You know women who have experienced it. Please speak to them and don't condone it as him being carried away in the heat of the moment or whatever the excuse is.

    I, like you I am sure, love Wikipedia and love the fact that they have shoved the horrors of the USA and the UK in our faces. But those women should have their day in court otherwise we are all the worse for it.

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    1. As I discussed with Anon earlier "minor" rape is the Swedish legal definition translated into English. In Sweden there are three levels of rape, for want of better translation major, regular and minor. Under UK law he'd probably be charged with sexual assault or less as in both cases the women consenting to sex with a condom would probably exclude him from a rape charge, at least in Sweden they can see the differences.

      The whole “carried away in the heat of the moment” thing is just a bunch of crap, I’ve stopped mid-shag when told to, any man can. He’s a nasty little sleazebag who is just running from 2- 4 years in a Swedish prison where Big Olaf will not take NO for an answer. I hope he rots in the Ecuador embassy making his pointless little egotistical speeches to a ever diminishing crowd.

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  9. Hi,

    I'm a follower of this blog, and as I'm also a swede I think I can add a little piece of information to this discussion.

    I'd like to point out beforehand that as a trial has not been held, there os not "official" version. Just his, hers and the papers versions (as always).

    As you wrote in your post, Miss A (Anna Ardin) claims certain things happened on Aug 14. Miss A is a blogger and twitter user and there are three posts that are relevant to this discussion. She made one on the 14th and one on the 15th. What is interesting is that she subsequently deleted them hours before she went to the police with her accusations against Julian Assange, which is almost a week after the event. As the Internet never forget anything, her posts were dug up via Googles cache of her blog and saved to http://www.samtycke.nu/doc/AnnaArdin_cache19aug.htm .

    The translated messages is as follows:
    Post on Aug 14.:
    Julian want to go to a crayfish party, anyone have a pair of vacant chairs ('free slots' is perhaps a better phrase?) for this evening or tomorrow?

    Post on Aug 15.:
    To sit outside att 2am and barely freeze together with the coolest and smartest people in the world, that's just amazing!

    She also made one post on Jan 19, 2010 (ie before the event) about "7 steps for legal revenge" (saved here http://www.samtycke.nu/doc/7-stepsrevenge.htm ) which is translated from an english webpage that is no longer availible. The saved page should translate okay-ish in Google Translate.

    Now, as to who is telling the truth and who isn't, that's for the court to decide. I can't claim to know how a victim in this situation feels (the only reference is a collegue who were saved just in time, so to say), but her behavior seems to me to be a little suspicious. On the other hand, he has not been the least bit accomodating towards the court, which doesn't help his case one bit. If he is guilty then he should be sentenced and go to jail, and if he is not guilty then he should not have to be afraid of the trial. The key is as always: evidence.

    That said, with our track record for biased judges and outside interests in high profile cases, I don't blame him for seeking asyslum...

    Regards

    a swede

    PS.

    Regarding our scales on crime: it's easier to use/meassure in some types of crime than others, ie "normal" assault. That said, there is no "minor rape". That's classed as sexual assault or sexual abuse. Here is a link to the police's site on sex crimes (translated by Google) http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.polisen.se%2FUtsatt-for-brott%2FOlika-typer-av-brott%2FSexualbrott%2F

    I hope it clears up the definitions a bit.

    DS.

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    1. Good point. Do you really think that someone out to get Assange would leave such an easily accessible trail? If there was a conspiracy then she wouldn’t even have Twittered, she’d have kept schtum.

      In Dagenham we have a saying; never bullshit a bullshitter. I’m a grade A bullshitter and this one smells more rural than the whole of Somerset.

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    2. You are probably right, but I still think it is an odd thing to do. And if JA moves to Ecuador we may never know the true reason behind their actions. A trial where the one accused is not attending the trial may be used when the verdict is estimated to be shorter than 3 months in jail, which is obviously not applicable in this case.

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