Sex Crime Allegations Against Assange Detailed
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange continues his mission while confined on bail to a U.K. country mansion, as Swedish and U.S. authorities turn up the heat on his prosecution.
The Guardian has published detailed statements by prosecutors, who are trying to extradite Assange to Sweden for questioning, and accounts by some of the main players involved in the unfolding saga.
According to the police reports viewed by the Guardian, Assange's accusers allege the following:
That Assange "unlawfully coerced" Miss A by using his body weight to hold her down in a sexual manner.
That he "sexually molested" Miss A by having sex with her without a condom when it was her "express wish" one should be used.
That he "deliberately molested" Miss A "in a way designed to violate her sexual integrity."
That he had sex with a second woman, Miss W, without a condom while she was asleep.
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Assange (who has not been charged with any offenses) and his legal team has vigorously denied the sexual assault and rape allegations of two Sweden women, claiming charges are politically motivated and a "stitch up."
Assange's lawyer, Mark Stephens, has maintained that the allegations stem from "consensual" but "unprotected" sexual encounters, and that Twitter messages sent by one of Assange's accusers undermine statements given to the Swedish police.
In addition to the sexual crime allegations, Assange fears the U.S. government is planning to indict him for espionage-related charges.
"There has been many calls by senior figures in the United States, including elected ones in the Senate, for my execution, the kidnapping of my staff, the execution of the young soldier, Bradley Manning, who they allege is embroiled in these affairs somehow," Assange stated Friday. "That's a very, very serious business. And the United States recently has shown that its institutions seem to failing. They are failing to follow the rule of law, [and] dealing with a superpower that does not appear to be following the rule of law is a serious business."
U.S. officials suspect that WikiLeaks obtained the documents, including the more than 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables, from Manning, who is being held in solitary confinement in a federal prison for allegedly providing WikiLeaks with classified documents.
Assange maintains that he did not conspire with Manning to exfiltrate the classified documents from U.S. government servers.
"Our technology means we don't know who is submitting us materials. But the name Bradley Manning was first heard by us when we read an article about his arrest in Wired magazine," Assange said.
As pointed out by CNET's Declan McCullogh, in alleged chat log transcripts with ex-hacker Adrian Lamo, Manning appears to contradict Assange's statement that he didn't know about the Army private until his name appeared in the media. He told Lamo that he "developed a relationship with Assange" over many months.
In the meantime, as the legal maneuvering continues, WikiLeaks is continuing to publish material from its trove of diplomatic cables. So far 1,613 out of 251, 287 leaked U.S. embassy cables - about 0.6% - have been released.
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