The curious sex case against Julian Assange

Sweden's Public Prosecutions Director, Marianne Ny, denies there is political pressure on the case / AP

Source: news.com.au
THE case against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange stems from two one-night stands in Sweden that one of the women involved says "had been consensual from the start but had eventually turned into abuse".

Mr Assange is accused by Swedish authorities of one count of unlawful coercion, two counts of sexual molestation and one count of rape earlier this year.

In August, Mr Assange was the key speaker at a seminar on "war and the role of the media" in Stockholm, and met "Sarah", Britain's Daily Mail reports.

Mr Assange stayed at the apartment of the well-known feminist (who can't be named for legal reasons) and during his stay the two had sexual intercourse. It is not disputed by either of them that the condom broke, which is a key aspect of the case, The Australian reports.

A few days later Mr Assange also met "Jessica", a young woman who sought to meet the activist after the seminar. Jessica alleges that Mr Assange refused to wear a condom during a second sexual encounter between them.

Swedish law considers unprotected sex as rape but Swedish sources have doubted the credibility of the women, who many people believe set up a "honey trap" for the Australian activist.

But according to the women, Jessica made contact with Sarah almost by coincidence, when she phoned a Labour Party office looking for Mr Assange - who had earlier promised to call her - only to discover she was not the only woman he had slept with that weekend, The Times reported.

She then confided to the woman she barely knew that she had had unprotected sex and was worried about the possibility of sexually transmitted diseases, the newspaper reported.

The two women then went to police on August 20 so Jessica could make a complaint against Mr Assange. Both women told their accounts of meeting Mr Assange.

Sarah has told Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet that Jessica "wanted to report rape. I gave my story as testimony to her story and to support her".

"In both cases what started out as voluntary sex subsequently developed into an assault," she told the paper.

Based on the allegations of a sabotaged condom in one case and a refusal to wear one in the other, the female interviewing officer believed that Jessica had been raped and Sarah had been sexually molested.

On August 31, Stockholm police interviewed Mr Assange. The rape charge was later dropped but the case was taken over and the investigation reopened by Marianne Ny, the Director of Prosecutions in Sweden.

Ms Ny oversees the prosecution of sex crimes in Sweden and has long been involved in cases regarding sexual abuse and violence. She denies accusations that the case is politically motivated.

"I want to make it clear that I have not been put under any kind of pressure, political or otherwise," she said.

"The criminal investigation [into Mr Assange] has nothing to do with WikiLeaks. It concerns him personally."

However, there are reports that one of Mr Assange's accusers worked with a group that has connections to the CIA.

According to US website the Raw Story, the woman may have had "ties to the US-financed anti-Castro and anti-communist groups".

It is reported that the group is led by Carlos Alberto Montaner, who is allegedly linked to the CIA.

Mr Assange denies the charges and is fighting attempts to extradite him to Sweden. His British lawyer, Mark Stephens, says the charges stem from a "dispute over consensual but unprotected sex".

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