Swedish Court Orders Detention of Wikileaks Founder Assange

An anonymous reader writes "Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is likely to be detained for questioning over his alleged connection to a rape case. The Director of Prosecution, Marianne Ny, has requested the District Court of Stockholm to detain Assange, claiming that they have not been able to meet with him to accomplish the interrogations. 'I request the district court of Stockholm to detain Mr Assange in his absence, suspected of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion,' Ny said in a statement."

Comments

Re:I dunno man

[JockTroll]

"Lawful coercion" does exist: it's called "arrest" or "detainment".

Re:Argghhh

[dbIII]

For fucks sake, they say they want to charge him, and then they let him go.

They never actually brought him in or even asked him to turn up last time. This is the first time he's actually been called in for questioning - but wait - they haven't actually called him in yet! We've got a huge beatup about something that isn't even a story yet. This ridiculous amount of trial by media makes it look very much like a bluff where they have nothing that will stick to the point where he can be deported but they just want to harass him out of the country.

Re:I dunno man

[Hatta]

From what I hear, "rape" in Sweden isn't necessarily what we'd think of as rape. Even in the US, rape isn't always "rape rape". Get a guy and a girl drunk, let them have sex, and if the girl regrets it in the morning it's "rape". I would assume it's some such bullshit until proven otherwise.

Defense attourney's letter in English

[grimJester]

click

Re:Legal response

[techsoldaten]

It sounds like the retroactive rape charge is in relation to the guy sleeping with two girls who know each other. They only went to the police after they found out about the other encounter. That would mean the charges are less about the AIDS and more about the cooties.

While I don't claim to be an expert in these matters, what I do know a thing or two about is the power of whisper campaigns. You can quickly dismantle someone's authority by just saying bad things about them and getting others to make jokes. The affect of the Assange affair, from what I have seen, is that he is getting smeared very effectively and a lot of people are in on it. If this was a political campaign and I was attempting to delegitimize a superior opponent, this is exactly how I would go about it.

I guess what I am saying is I have all the sympathy in the world for the victims and look forward to learning what brought these charges to the level of rape. I would not be surprised to learn the details failed to meet the high standards most people would recognize as sexual assault. I would be utterly stunned if a single one of these jackals attacking Assange takes back anything they said if he's eventually proven innocent.

Re:"Because You're Popular, You Get a Free Pass!"

[HonIsCool]

Moreover, rape is absurdly loose in this country. You can have consensual sex with a girl, but she can still change her mind the next day and claim you "got her drunk" or "talked her into it". Personal responsibility pretty much goes flying out the door in such cases (precedents abound).

[citation needed]

 

But he allegedly had an "attitude problem" with women. That's not rape in my book. I don't care what the law says, it is simply immoral to prosecute a man for rape on such bullshit.

It depends on what the "attitude problem with women" consisted of. According to one woman, it was that it started off consentual but turned into non-consentual and that Assange had a problem with accepting that. Allegedly of course.

Statement by Julian Assange's counsel Mark Stephen

[grimJester]

here

as various media outlets have reported "the basis for the rape charge" purely seems to constitute a post-facto dispute over consensual, but unprotected sex days after the event. Both women have declared that they had consensual sexual relations with our client and that they continued to instigate friendly contact well after the alleged incidents. Only after the women became aware of each other's relationships with Mr. Assange did they make their allegations against him.

Re:I dunno man

[HonIsCool]

I was going write something similar, so I'll just add some comments here instead.

I'm a bit peeved with all the comments alleging that a "girl can have consentual sex and change her mind the next day and it is accepted as rape in Sweden". This is not what the courts have decided, where in fact they do seem a lot more willing to acquit than convicted in hairy cases. Which might not necessarily be the worst of things.

I'll say though that the "Was she drunk, has she had many boyfriends, is she a slut?" is not regarded as a reason to acquit by the court, although the defense attorney might be too happy to trot out that line.

Dont believe. This is a typical gladio operation.

[unity100]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Gladio

this is the italian version of the organization that was founded in every nato country, and probably in every country aligned with usa back in cold war.

these secret organizations were set up in order to make sure that those countries 'stayed true to western ideals' -> basically u.s. interests. and, in all cases, even the secret service of the involved country did not officially know or was involved with these organizations, despite probably having members of these organizations among themselves without their knowledge.

operations involved assassinations or character assassinations of dangerous individuals, intellectuals, politicians (death, accidents, or scandals, other means), setting up terrorist acts, even fake terrorist organizations to take blame for various actions in those countries in order to estrange the public from what the organization would claim to be. (set up fake leftist terror groups and estrange people from left ideology, or religions etc), creation and funding of various insurgent/guerilla groups in order to either aid the friendly regime (in 3rd world countries these kind of insurgence was the excuse the dictators were using for oppressive measures), or, to harass nearby unfriendly regimes, arrange any means that would ensure the u.s. friendly parties got the upper hand in elections, in democratic countries. (scandals, bribery schemes, cheating, anything) .... the list of activities is endless ...

after cold war, some of the countries have ousted and prosecuted these organizations, or closed them down. some of the countries, did not. some of the countries, were not able to do that. some, are still trying.

it is highly possible that, a version of this organization existed or still exists in usa, with, or without the knowledge of its intelligence organizations.

and this 'rape case', seems WAY too similar with the cases in the accounts that the ex-agents describe in books describing gladio, or testimonies in court cases that were conducted over these.

in case you forgot, wikipedia has a habit of exposing any kind of information to public, including very, very disturbing dealings of united states government and corporations. things even u.s. citizens cannot access and uncover ...

Re:"Because You're Popular, You Get a Free Pass!"

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sorry, but the translation for "nämdeman" would be "juror", poor as it might be. "Lay assessor" would probably be a better term, even if less familiar to the slashdot audience. And these lay assessors are politically appointed figures indeed.

Re:By all means, question him

[IICV]

Well that's the thing, they're not even questioning him - just read the letter from Mr. Assange's attorney a couple of posts up. What's been happening is that the Swedish prosecutors, in contravention of good taste and (apparently) Swedish law, have been announcing "We're going to arrest Assange for rape!", and then not doing anything about it, not telling him what the charges are, and not bringing him in for questioning. They even said he was free to leave the country!

That's not the behavior of someone who wants to prosecute a criminal in the court of justice; if they had a case, they would fucking bring it, and Assange would go to jail for rape. This is the behavior of someone who wants to hang an innocent person in the court of public opinion.

Re:Key question

[uffe_nordholm]

The court can decide to have the "doors closed". This means only the court itself and the people involved in the case see the evidence. Any witnesses called will hear/see nothing other than their own evidence. Further, the court decision can be stamped "Secret" in parts or in its entirety. If things are really sensitive, you will never find out there has even been a trial....

I believe that one of the most often used reasons to close the doors and/or label the court decision secret is to protect the victim of the crime. This means that if JA is found guilty, the rest of the world might never get to examine the evidence, since it has been withheld to protect the interests of the victims.

Yes, I live in Sweden, but no, I am not a lawyer.

Re:This will never end department is right

[DES]

In any case, noone is going to have a clue what the truth is till Assange turns himself in for questioning. Fleeing to another country tends to make one look more guilty rather than less, but answering questions with a lawyer present (which is the key here - don't talk to police or prosecutor without your lawyer present, guilty or innocent) won't do much to make you look more guilty unless, well, you're guilty....

Have you been paying any attention at all? The prosecutor repeatedly declined to interview Assange while he was in Sweden and approved his request to leave the country. I suggest you read some of the +5 comments, which include statements by Assange's Swedish and British attorneys.

Re:Assange's got his own personal "issues"

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

This is part of the US's PUBLICLY REVEALED campaign to discredit WikiLeaks. The way to do so? Ad Hominem. Make the story about the messenger - over and over, again.

It wouldn't matter if WikiLeaks were fronted by Charles Manson - that's not the point of the disclosures.

But once more, you fall for the legerdemain.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/39729526
http://www.ufppc.org/us-a-world-news-mainmenu-35/9948-news-a-comment-pentagon-campaign-to-discredit-wikileaks-downshifts.html
http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/community/news/gt/blog/us-plan-to-discredit-wikileaks-leaked/?cs=40078
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/oct2010/time-o25.shtml