Legal Research

Wikileaks Founder Charged With, Then Cleared of, Rape

By Simon Fodden

Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, was reportedly charged with rape and sexual molestation in Sweden on Saturday. He was, as the Swedish authorities put it, arrested in his absence. Naturally, conspiracy theorists were abuzz with the prospect that this was a smear campaign in retaliation for his recent publication of thousands of U.S. military memos. See, e.g., the Mashable story.

Later that same day — today — Swedish authorities announced that:

Chief prosector Eva Finné has come to the desicion that Julian Assange is not suspected of rape. Considering that, Assange is no longer arrested in his absence.

Now conspiracy theorists will have some real material to play with, I’d say. In the meantime, we await revelations as to the basis for the original charges.

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on August 21, 2010 (boomark / email).