President of Ecuador claims sharing a bed can't lead to rape as he defends Julian Assange

• Labeled claims by two women 'highly suspicious'
• Insisted '90 to 95 per cent of the planet' would not consider the WikiLeaks founder's actions a crime
  

 

Is this the photo that could clear Assange? Grinning for the camera, WikiLeaks boss and woman who says he sexually assaulted her 48 hours earlier

By ABUL TAHER

PUBLISHED: 21:57 GMT, 25 August 2012 | UPDATED: 12:15 GMT, 26 August 2012

It seems an unremarkable image: a group of friends smiling broadly. But this is the photograph Julian Assange hopes will clear his name.

The face of the woman on the left has been obscured for legal reasons.

For although she is seen beaming, she would later tell police that 48 hours before the picture was taken, the WikiLeaks founder pinned her down in her flat and sexually assaulted her.

Smiles all around: Woman A, left, at a dinner with Julian Assange, centre, host Richard Falkvinge, Anna Troberg and Sara Sangberg

If the case ever reaches court –  Mr Assange is currently holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London – his lawyers will argue that the  photograph undermines the 33-year-old woman’s entire story. And, they claim, there is more.

In the two days after the alleged assault in Sweden, Mr Assange and Woman A, as she is known, attended a conference and two dinner parties where it is claimed they were practically inseparable.

During one party, Woman A tweeted that she was ‘with the world’s coolest, smartest people!’.

The photograph was taken on August 15, 2010, at the Glenfiddich restaurant in Stockholm, at a dinner of meatballs and schnapps hosted by Rickard Falkvinge, the founder of the Swedish Pirate Party (PP), which campaigns for greater government transparency.

Although by all accounts it was a jolly occasion, there was some serious discussion that at times became ‘passionate and intense’.

Last week's balcony speech was Julian Assange first public appearance since he entered the Ecuadorean Embassy

Mr Falkvinge said the purpose of the dinner, which lasted three hours, was to sign a contract between the PP and WikiLeaks so Mr Assange’s organisation could use the party’s computer servers.

Also present was the deputy  leader of PP, Anna Troberg, and the party’s IT manager, Richard Olson, who brought along his then fiancee, Sara Sandberg.

Since the assault charges were brought, Mr Falkvinge and Ms Troberg have given detailed statements to the police in support of Mr Assange. Mr Falkvinge said their testimony included observations about the body language between Mr Assange and Woman A, who arrived with another woman,  called Pietra, who stayed just for the starter.

Mr Falkvinge sat next to Mr Assange, with Woman A sitting diagonally opposite them.

‘Most of the night, Julian was speaking with me,’ Mr Falkvinge said. ‘This was a heads of organisation meeting and everybody had  a counterpart to talk to. It was a  professional dinner.’

For Mr Falkvinge, one of the things that was striking about it, in view of what he later learned, was that Woman A volunteered to become Mr Assange’s press secretary during the meal. Mr Falkvinge has refused to go into details about the way Woman A behaved with Mr Assange, because he has to give evidence in court if a trial is held.

But he made it clear that he did not think Woman A behaved like a victim or someone who had suffered a traumatic sexual experience only two days earlier.

He said: ‘You can look at objective facts and draw far-reaching conclusions: the fact that we are at the dinner and it was with very passionate people and with good food and drinks; the fact that I and Anna Troberg have left depositions as key defence witnesses in the upcoming trial – that does tell you a lot.

If Assange's case was to go to court after extradition to Sweden upon leaving the Ecuadorian Embassy, pictured, his lawyers will use the photo in his defence

‘You can say what we saw was more consistent with the defence than the prosecution.’

Due to Woman A’s complaint to the police, as well as that of another alleged victim, Mr Assange has been fighting extradition to Sweden from Britain for the past two years.

He insists he has been set up, and fears that going to Sweden is a ruse for him to be quickly extradited to America, where he could stand trial for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified US military documents on the WikiLeaks website.

His two-year fight against extradition took a bizarre twist when Mr Assange entered the Ecuadorian Embassy in June seeking asylum.

He was granted asylum by Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa last week, igniting a diplomatic rift between Ecuador and Britain.

The Mail on Sunday has also learned that just hours after the alleged attack, Woman A accompanied Mr Assange to a Social Democratic Party conference.

According to police reports, it was there that Mr Assange met Woman B, aged 29, who would accuse him  of rape.

The two women’s lawyer, Claes Borsgtrom, said yesterday: ‘We will only discuss the dinner at the restaurant and the picture in court.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...m.html#ixzz24f2YJQCk

As I said before, this Swedish laws are ridiculous and non-sense, but they were created to be used against someone the establishment want to hit.

I only find Assange guilty of bad taste when picking women, for someone of his reputation should be able to get better and nicer girls.

He also blasted the British government for its "contradictions" in wanting to extradite Assange to Sweden, when it did not extradite former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet after his 1998 arrest in London on an international arrest warrant issued by Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon - who is now heading Assange's legal team.

Mr Correa added: "Britain supported Augusto Pinochet unconditionally. And they let him go, they didn't extradite him on humanitarian grounds - whereas they want to extradite Julian Assange for not using a condom, for the love of God."

Beautiful, how stupid the British look now....

Who is listening?

He is the president of Ecuador and not a judge in Britain or Sweden. Assange had his representation on extradition in Britain and now he faces the charges against him is Sweden.

If 95% of the world would free him then he has a good chance to be acquitted.  He need to do than then file charges against extradition there if he feels he would be turned over to the US authority.

He is also a lawyer...

Laws are country specific.

It is obvious isn't it. That's why Sweden decided to criminalize sex without condom, where as in other countries they criminalized the woman who is raped.

So I believe you are OK with sending victims of rape to jail as they do in the Middle East and South Asia including India.

Don't extrapolate from one to the other. I do not even know what the ME laws are and if the judge is their behavior with respect to women in general there would be none.

I see your confusion. You should call yourself stormed!

First, you are confused. Telling me that the President of Ecuador is a lawyer is tangential to the necessity of having Assange before a court in the jurisdiction where he is accused of committing crimes. Extending that spurious digression with more idiocy about ME women and the nature of rapes there bears no relation to the question of a man having to face a jury of his peers.  Sweden is not the ME and whatever the infraction he is likely to be tried fairly and not taken to the local soccer field for a public beheading. Now get your silly behind on track to the essential argument of this man refusing to face a criminal court before which he stand  accused.

Cobra and Storm,

When you rape your girlfriends in your native countries, I assume India and Guyana respectively, it is only a crime if you kill them afterwards, right?

Lucas me boi get yourself better informed. The women were not raped. The Swedish justice system has not yet concluded that they were raped or that any sex crime was committed.

 I do not think anyone has accused me of rape or that I am wanted by the law in any of the 50 states for such. This bastard is wanted not me.

I do not care to waste my time arguing extraneous existential shit. The point is one specific state want him and he is hiding. I do not see many swedes being cornered by a lax law. I do not see them complaining it is unjust.