"One of the worst cases I've ever seen"
Swedish lawyer and crime author Leif Silbersky
spoke with journalists
THE RAPE AND MOLESTATION charges against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, which led to an arrest warrant in his name on Friday and its mysterious withdrawal on Saturday (I wrote about it here), continue to perplex Swedish society. The case is far from over, since Assange remains under investigation for molestation and has retained the services of the prominent Swedish lawyer and crime novelist Leif Silbersky.
In comments to Dagens nyheterna today, Silbersky said that the case "is a travesty, one of the worst I’ve been involved in. I have never been so pestered by the foreign media, and asked how something like this could happen.” Silbersky says that Assange’s on-again, off-again arrest warrant is simply bizarre. "What’s going on?,” he asked. "First they arrest a person on virtually no information for what most of us regard as an appalling crime, and then they make it public. This has damaged my client and his organization, but most of all it has damaged confidence in the legal system. ... That simply must not be allowed to happen.”
Some Swedes protest that the prosecutor acted correctly, since Assange is a foreigner and could have left the country at a moment’s notice. "It doesn’t work that way,” Silbersky responded. "A woman can’t call the police and have somebody arrested just because she makes a statement. That isn’t legal. [All these foreigners calling me up] question our legal system.”
When asked what exactly Assange is currently being investigated for, Silbersky said: "I don’t know what he is suspected of. But whatever happens, the damage has already been done. If you keep spitting on a stone, it ends up getting wet.”
The two women in the case are being represented by the well-known attorney and Social Democratic politician Claes Borgström, an expert on human rights who formerly served as Sweden’s gender equality ombudsman. "I regard what they experienced as sexual molestation and possible also as a serious sexual crime,” Borgström told journalists. "The idea that Assange is the victim of a mud-throwing campaign by the Pentagon has absolutely no substance. I can say that after having heard the women’s story and also after reading the police interrogation.” He also points out that the women have no motive for getting Assange into trouble.
So Sweden is in store for an interesting autumn. Interesting for news buffs, that is. It promises to be very unpleasant for Assange and the two women who filed the complaint against him. But when it comes to the debate over the wisdom of our current Afghanistan policy - the focus of the Wikileaks documents - as long as Assange's sexual habits are front-page news, it will be lucky if it makes it to page 8.
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uyk hj
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Comments
My pleasure. No, I don't intend to become OS's special Assange correspondent on the scene in Stockholm (since I'm in Berlin, anyway), but since I read the Swedish press daily and enjoy a good thriller, I'm likely to post the occasional article as developments merit.
You're right - leaking both the information and Assange's name to the tabloids was highly irregular and the cause of much debate in Sweden right now.
Roth was his last name. But anyway, Profumo was having the affair, but it was probably a set-up, which might have interesting parallels here.
in future his successor may wish to be anonymous, leaving messages on the web as alqaeda does. and for much the same reason: same violent and amoral enemy.
I'm certain it will, but in any case attention has been deflected from the leaks themselves to Assange as a person. Was this intended? That's the big question.
Another is sex. Sex is always a weapon of choice in espenague cases. If they could they would hang a homosexual encounter on the Wiki Man. But since this is Sweden, it won't stick. However, the CIA want to smoke him out and blow his cover.
The charge of course are shit. But one thing about shit is when you throw it, it sticks. I wish WikiLeaks had been around in 2003 before the Invasion of Iraq so a whole lot of shit could be exposed in the White House itself.
Sorry about the bad words. I think I am turning into a black Dr. Laura.