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Assange Case: Sofia Wilén Puts on the Fritz

Deconstructing Sofia Wilén's new legal eagle and Sofia Wilén herself.

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The recent press release by lawyer Elisabeth Massi Fritz took most everyone by surprise. On all continents. The bill sent by Claes Borgström to the Stockholm district court was thought to be for Anna Ardin. Some of the confusion was caused by the treacherous habit of calling complainants 'MÄ1', 'MÄ2', and so forth - and then mixing the names up over time.

Massi Fritz' statement changed all that. Today it's generally agreed Ardin is staying with drinking buddy Borgström, and it's Wilén who's emerging from the shadows, but only slightly, to twist the thumbscrews a bit more.

The Massi Fritz statement is full to the brim with bombast and deliberately misleading claims, and taken in the international context we today all know so well, it's difficult to imagine said statement as a professional manifest of the wishes of an ingenue in her twenties.

Here's the statement in a rush translation. The article continues on the other side.

My client has the right to her day in court for the rape she's reported to the police and for which Assange is today suspected of. She has the right as a plaintiff to have her case tried in a customary way in accordance with the Swedish judicial system. The rape Assange is suspected of has left deep scars and meant a serious violation of her personal integrity. The violation is especially serious and the psychological symptoms are there every day. Assange's behaviour and prolonging of the preliminary investigation in this case exacerbate the suffering of my client when the preliminary investigation does not move forward. The wait is long and the suffering great. Speculations in the media have been many and directly erroneous. This preliminary investigation is about suspicion of rape for the part concerning my client. There is no form of conspiracy as has been claimed by the media. My client is both a plaintiff and a crime victim just as many others I represent daily in numerous cases. Her rights as a plaintiff shall not be forgotten in the process. We demand tougher measures by Sweden. Sweden must pressure Ecuador to turn Assange over to Sweden. Assange shall not be allowed to spite a court decision. Neither shall Assange be allowed to determine the game rules for how we conduct preliminary investigations in Sweden. As a new counsel in the case concerning rape I can ascertain that Assange's statements about rendition to the US where he says he risks capital punishment are merely a way to circumvent the systems and laws of different countries to evade responsibility for the deeds he today is suspected of. The preliminary investigation in Sweden must be carried out swiftly and in a customary way according to our Swedish judicial system even if the name of the suspect should be Assange. Stockholm 22 May 2013 Elisabeth Massi Fritz Criminal attorney specialising in crime victims

Deconstructing Massi Fritz

√ 'My client has the right to her day in court'

No one has a right to a day in court for an alleged criminal offence. One has a right to a proper police investigation. That day in court is dependent on what the police find and what the prosecutors decide. Massi Fritz knows better. She's just being bombastic.

√ 'She has the right as a plaintiff to have her case tried in a customary way'

No. See above. Remember: Massi Fritz knows better. This is propaganda. For what purpose might be obvious to some.

The use of 'customary' (sedvanligt in Swedish) is an attempt to discard all the strange things about the case introduced by the police, the complainants, the prosecutors, the ringside actors, Uncle Sam, Union Jack, Swedish PM Reinfeldt, US envoy to Sweden Carl Bildt, Karl Rove, all the rest. There's one thing this case is not, never has been, and never will be: customary.

This is just another veiled attempt by Massi Fritz to obviate the overwhelming evidence that something foul is afoot.

√ 'in accordance with the Swedish judicial system'

A hint that Swedish cases shouldn't have to involve Mutual Legal Assistance (even though they do all the time).

√ 'has left deep scars'

Talk about pouring it on thick. Wilén had scars already before she met Assange and certainly nothing happened in her time with him to make matters worse. She texted her friends all night about the naked celebrity in her bed, invited her brother up to meet Assange (you hardly do that with a rapist) and plotted with her friend Marie to sell her story and make a lot of money.

√ 'Assange's behaviour and prolonging of the preliminary investigation'

You can't get more disingenuous. You can't get more defamatory. Assange waited five weeks in Sweden and no one wanted to talk with him. Knowing full well what the story meant (and how it had already hurt him and his organisation) he wanted the first best opportunity ASAP to tell his story and get the affair off the front pages. Five weeks is over a month, and the #1 guideline in the Swedish prosecutorial rulebook is interview everyone ASAP - especially the alleged perp. But they didn't touch him.

That logic holds to this day. The powers that be have an ideal situation with Assange holed up in an embassy and still under suspicion of Swedish rape and molestation. And it doesn't matter that Assange would still walk if convicted because he's already served the maximum possible sentence - the idea is to tie him up and cripple the WikiLeaks organisation. So no one wants to see a move save Julian - and yet Massi Fritz plays the ultimate el cheapo card and blames him, of all people. Marianne Ny could send Mats Gehlin to London at any time. Gehlin already does a lot of traveling like that in cases that are much more severe. Someone's stopping Ny from doing that - and putting enough pressure on her so she flubs her fibs for both TIME and the Swedish media.

√ 'The wait is long and the suffering great'

No shit, Fritzie. Ever heard of 'presumption of innocence'? Ring a bell somewhere? This isn't personal. This isn't about Assange. This is about how people like you are trashing our judicial system. Or perhaps that doesn't translate smoothly into the world of Swedish 'jurisprudence'? Ever tried living in a small dark room for a year with no access to the world outside?

√ 'There is no form of conspiracy as has been claimed by the media'

How do you know, Fritzie? Talked to Fred Burton recently? Got a contact at Langley you intuitively trust? Do tell us, Fritz: how do you know? You don't. No one could. You're just making up more shit. Tsk tsk, Fritzie.

√ 'Sweden must pressure Ecuador to turn Assange over to Sweden'

A sex case toppling international relations? Is that a controlled substance, Fritzie? Do you have a legal presciption? And how precisely would you suggest Sweden pressure a foreign power? Threaten an attack with Bofors cannons and JAS fighter planes? Assange is perfectly legal where he is and so are the Ecuadoreans.

Has your client absolutely no clue whatsoever? Or have you penned this statement on your own without reading it back to her and getting her approval? Did she storm out before you could finish it?

And what happened to the shy reticent girl from August 2010 who was upset the police were hunting for her idol and boyfriend?

√ 'Assange shall not be allowed to spite a court decision'

This is downright evil. There's no spite. And matters would be taken care of summarily if Sweden could guarantee they have no plans to turn him over to Uncle Sam. But as communications between the US and Sweden are not that great, any move by Sweden is likely to panic the US and bring about a major crisis in the circles of 'silent diplomacy'. Neither the UK nor Sweden dare step out of line. On the contrary: they dance all the time for their master, even when master is occupied elsewhere.

√ 'Neither shall Assange be allowed to determine the game rules for how we conduct preliminary investigations in Sweden'

He's not. Again intentionally disingenuous. It's Sweden (and the wizards behind the curtains) who change the rules all the time.

√ 'As a new counsel in the case concerning rape I can ascertain that Assange's statements about rendition to the US where he says he risks capital punishment are merely a way to circumvent the systems and laws of different countries to evade responsibility for the deeds he today is suspected of.'

This is the biggest mouthful of all, likely too big a challenge even for the likes of Demosthenes. This is at best a claim, and a weird and wild one at that. But the translation says 'ascertain', and of course there's no way the blurry Fritz can ascertain a thing.

√ 'The preliminary investigation in Sweden must be carried out swiftly and in a customary way according to our Swedish judicial system even if the name of the suspect should be Assange.'

Hate speech and little more. Belies a pathological attitude to someone who, by the very principles of jurisprudence Fritz pretends to protect, must be treated as innocent. This is the stuff of show trial. Fritz is nurturing cultivated hatred. Fritz needs to get away to the sea shore and breathe in some clean air.

Deconstructing Sofia Wilén

What's so remarkable about the above statement by Fritz is that it should be made at the behest of Wilén, possibly a rewording of a statement by Wilén, and should not be the type of inebriated propaganda Claes Borgström was so infamous for.

Sofia came out of nowhere and afterwards headed right back again. She's known to have been a Lou Reed ~~stalker~~ groupie in 2006, hooking up with him on tour in the UK and following him to Norway. This was all excellently documented by Flashback member Callas, with YouTube clips of Wilén disturbing Reed in concert, numerous other artifacts, including close and personal photographs of the star and his entourage. Callas didn't keep a local backup copy, and a short time afterwards it was all deleted by a Flashback moderator without a murmur, without the customary notification something had been removed.

The incident resulted in the new Flashback thread here. And trolls have ever since descended on the Flashback forum as soon as Sofia Wilén's name has come up, driving her to the back pages where no one would notice.

Wilén claims to have been aware of Julian Assange for only a fortnight before this latest visit of his to Stockholm. She seems to have obtained a ticket to the event after it was sold out and without the preferred press credentials. She was immediately taken under the wing of organiser Peter Weiderud who told the shaken Donald Boström and Johannes Wahlström: 'she's with us'.

She came onto Assange during the lunch after the gig in the most cringeworthy way possible, spending her table time to listen rather than speak. She tore Assange away from Wahlström only minutes later and spent the afternoon sexing up Assange in the back row of the cinema where she worked, and feigned surprise when the lights came on and her clothing was in disarray, only to brag to her colleagues about the same thing.

Anna Ardin's been a misdemeanour and a blowhard. Nothing more. Ardin's got all the attention. Because Wilén was able to get the planet to swallow her up, leaving Ardin alone holding the bag.

Wilén's disappearance from the web was not only thorough - it was also professional. And yet the image of a wispy neurotic wallflower remained. The doyens at Flashback sized up the case on their assumptions of her personality and character, all this without a care for the facts or any closer personal acquaintance, and instead concentrated on venting on the last girl standing.

Wilén was so upset to hear her idol and lover was being chased on the streets of Stockholm that she could not complete her interrogation with Irmeli Krans, even though all the pieces seem to already be in place, and even though the notice of the arrest warrant came long before she left the Klara police station.

Then there's the popping sound - something that convinced Ardin that their stories were weirdly similar, something that provoked Ardin to say this to the police as well. And yet there's no formal mention by Wilén of any popping sound, only indirectly by Mats Gehlin in a comment written on receipt of the condom lab results.

This is all orchestrated. Can't you see that? There's no way mere coincidence led to the situation we have today. AA is like a New Year's Eve rocket that shoots in the wrong direction and scares the shit out of people - starts fires where you want them but also where you don't want them. Check out what she's doing besides tangling with JA. She's crazy. Completely crazy. SW - she's the template for the next generation of James Bond films. Dig into it - find out who she is. I know from my own experience that I can get lost in a thought and miss the obvious. Try for a second to take a step back and tell us what you see.
- Askabara, Flashback forum