donderdag 3 februari 2011

WikiLeaks 60



"... the WikiLeaks founder appears to have been staying with both of his accusers for days after the alleged rape and molestation took place. The pair paid for his transport costs, cooked meals and washed clothes for him before reporting him to the police."

Assange police reports leaked on to the internet
By Juha Saarinen 5:30 AM Friday Feb 4, 2011

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is getting a dose of his own medicine, with details of the confidential Swedish police pre-trial investigation continuing to be leaked on the internet.

The latest leak is a 100-page fax between Assange's Swedish and British lawyers that was posted to a website on January 27 by an unknown person.

This follows the leaks last year of other parts of the investigation, including 68 pages to the British media.

The material contains Swedish police interviews with Assange and his accusers, Sofia Wilen and Anna Ardin, as well other witnesses. Some interviews contain potentially embarrassing details about Assange and his sex life, down to what happened during intercourse with the women.

According to the leaked police file, the WikiLeaks founder appears to have been staying with both of his accusers for days after the alleged rape and molestation took place. The pair paid for his transport costs, cooked meals and washed clothes for him before reporting him to the police.

There is also a forensic report on the condoms Assange is said to have worn during sex with the two women. Apparently the women kept the condoms for days, in Ardin's case for a week, before taking them to the police.

Assange is accused of having torn on purpose a condom worn during sex with Ardin but the interview gives no reason why he would do this. The forensic testing shows no DNA in Ardin's condom.

DNA belonging to "a male" was found in the other condom but the forensic report doesn't say if it belongs to Assange. No further forensic testing appears to have been done, nor are there any medical reports on the two women.

The documents show Assange was arrested in absentia within minutes of the two women reporting him for rape and sexual molestation, and before they had been questioned fully by police. Despite the serious nature of the allegations against Assange, many of the interviews were written down with pen and paper by the police, and not recorded. At one stage, the police inspector who questioned Wilen is said to have complained that she had been locked out of her original interrogation notes and couldn't produce a final version because of this.

In a note, the police inspector wrote that she was directed by her superior to "create and sign" a new interview document with unspecified "necessary changes".

Although Swedish chief prosecutor Eva Finne decided that there was no rape case to answer for Assange and rescinded the warrant for his arrest, the documents show that the police continued to investigate the WikiLeaks founder and interviewed witnesses for months. One witness questioned in September said that Ardin told him that she sat in on the interview with Wilen and helped "make her case stronger" by adding an unspecified sentence to the statement made.

The police inspector who interviewed Wilen is listed as a friend of Ardin on social-networking website Facebook.

Ardin and the inspector are both politically active in the Swedish Social Democratic Party.

Swedish law is strict about confidentiality and name suppression in sex crime investigations but Assange was named as a suspect immediately with his picture being sent out to media.

Assange is currently out on bail in Britain, awaiting an extradition hearing to be held in two weeks' time.

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