The Assange affair

[ritaxis]

The women involved in the Julian Assange affair did not accuse him of any misconduct other than refusing to get his act together and get tested for STDs.

They didn't ask for him to be prosecuted for sex crimes: they asked for him to be forced to get tested.

(this is yet another interim report on this thing, and it may change again, but this seems to be the most thorough report so far)

Now, wandering off after a broken condom and not responding to your partner's pleas to set their mind at ease is a jerk th8ing to do.  But  it's not rape.

It's a pretext to arrest the Wikileaks guy, though.

Comments

[karinfromnosund.livejournal.com]

According to our newspaper, quoting the two women's lawyer, Assange's crime consists of having made them into media targets.

This is getting weirder and weirder.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that link. The accusations of rape did seem to come out of nowhere and I didn't know whether they were trumped up charges, just a pretext to arrest him or something serious. That explains things more clearly.

[mayakda.livejournal.com]

Well, according to the BBC:

According to the BBC, here are the charges against Assange read out in court today:
Used his body weight to hold down Miss A in a sexual manner.
Had unprotected sex with Miss A when she had insisted on him using a condom.
Molested Miss A “in a way designed to violate her sexual integrity”.
Had unprotected sex with Miss W while she was asleep.

at least as reported by thsi blogger http://www.anglofille.com/2010/12/07/wikileaks-and-rape/

[zeborah]

Yeah. AFAICT at this present murky juncture a) he's accused of having sex with them in circumstances where they'd made it clear they didn't want sex or would want to stop having sex; b) this counts as rape and ought to count as rape; c) in normal circumstances the cops would laugh at a woman telling such a story and the charges would go absolutely nowhere; d) the only reason the charges are going somewhere this time is the Wikileaks thing.

I think d) doesn't in any way negate a). And a) doesn't negate d). And the whole situation is vile, partly because people shouldn't have to fear such criminal charges as retribution for political action, and partly because people making complaints of rape should be taken seriously every time, and when they're only taken seriously because TPTB want retribution for political action it casts doubt on all such complaints and decreases the chances of anyone being taken seriously.

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

>>It's a pretext to arrest the Wikileaks guy, though.<<

I've been thinking lately how I wish every rapist could make Interpol's Most Wanted list.