Julian Assange Faces Rape Investigation In Sweden — Updated

mpawlo was one of many readers who have sent news that a warrant has been issued in Stockholm, Sweden for WikiLeaks founder and spokesman Julian Assange. The investigation apparently involves "one report of rape and one report of harassment." The story was broken by Swedish tabloid Expressen (original in Swedish), and later picked up by more reputable sources like CNN and the BBC, who say the warrant has been confirmed by Swedish authorities. The WikiLeaks Twitter feed has commented three times about the charges so far, first saying they were warned of 'dirty tricks,' then that they hadn't been contacted by Swedish police, and then a statement from Assange saying the charges are without basis.
Update: 08/21 15:58 GMT by S : Multiple sources are now reporting that the warrant for Assange's arrest has been withdrawn. Aftonbladet has coverage in Swedish. Chief prosecutor Eva Finne said, "I don't think there is reason to suspect that he has committed rape."

Comments

Re:Rape? In Sweden?

[Mindjiver]

So how do you explain the larger number of reported rapes in Sweden then?

http://www.thelocal.se/19102/20090427/

"Sweden has the highest incidence of reported rapes in Europe - twice as many as "runner up" the UK, a new study shows."

Proper response

[Krahar]

The proper response to such allegations is not to dismiss them out of hand as a government plot. The proper response is to assume and treat him as completely innocent until such a time that he is found guilty in a court of law - at that point you may want to look into the case to see if the jury was crazy or reasonable. Until then nothing should change to the extent that a "not guilty" verdict should be as if no new information was given. An allegation should be both taken seriously and not believed until it has been verified. That's the proper response. Now of course humans just aren't built to behave like that. If you can't maintain this stance, then you have to choose between being suspicious of him or saying that you are sure the allegations are false. In that choice it's pretty clear that the preponderance of evidence so far is to dismiss the claims. We have no evidence to look at.

Statement from Swedish Pirate Party's leader

[jeorgen]

Rick Falkvinge, the chairman of the Swedish Pirate Party has made a statement in an internal newsletter. It can be found here.

An excerpt in a quick-and-dirty translation by me:

"I ask everyone to exercise extreme caution in this issue and keep two very important things in mind:

We cannot and should not second guess the results of a trial. We should not even hint whether he is guilty or not, not internally and not externally. If somebody asks, we reply that it is a serious crime he is being accused of, but that there is no basis for us to speculate about his culpability.

It is not Assange that we are helping. We don't know the guy. The organisation The Pirate Party helps the organisation WikiLeaks, and that on a sound ideological common ground. If the organisation Wikileaks has problems with their staff, they have to solve it, not us.Most contact between WL [Wikileaks] and PP [Pirate Party], has been between theirs and ours technicians, and not with Assange."

Re:Rape? In Sweden?

[jpkunst]

You're assuming the point of rape is to fulfill sexual desire -- it's not, it's about wielding power over someone else..

That's the feminist/social sciences dogma. See Palmer & Thornhill, A Natural History of Rape for a different point of view.

Re:Rape? In Sweden?

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, swedish law classifies a lot of things as "rape" that wouldn't be rape in other countries (this can be seen by looking at swedish rape statistics before and after the relevant changes to the law).

Also, from the article you linked: "
The figures can however be somewhat distorted as it is often only assault rapes by strangers and aggravated acquaintance rapes that are reported in many of these countries - as was the case in Sweden 40 years ago.".

According to aftonbladet.se both girls _willingly had sex with him_ but said he had a skewed view on women. They also said they are not afraid of him and he was non-violent.
I wonder what kind of actions he did that constitutes rape then?

Source: http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article7652935.ab

Re:Not Rape?

[lordholm]

Doesn't have to be, in Sweden, you can be convicted for rape without penetrating anything. Forced petting is enough. You do not even have to use force, only go against the will of the person that is the victim is enough.

The bad thing with this is that it leads to people starting to distrust the law and the authorities.

Re:This just in

[Internetuser1248]

You forgot the bit about guaranteeing security, for free, for the better part of the last century. That cost a few bucks for sure, but none of that matters. ... Being reminded that the taliban really are the bad guys doesn't fit with the world view these idiots like to project.

Selling weapons to your enemies
Destabilising democracies and supporting fascist dicators
bombing civilians
supporting terrorists including the taliban
supplying weapons to mass murderers
preventing colonies from gaining independence
deploying nuclear weapons against civilian targets
unilaterally invading soveriegn nations
turture, illegal detention
starving children
mind control experiments
obstructing the prevention of terrorism
dropping bombs on everyone you possibly can

Gee thanks guys. We would all just love all that security you have been guaranteeing, when do you suppose it will be delivered? On second thoughts, I think we might just sort out our own security from now on.