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Assange: Decisions Can Wait

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Sweden's chief prosecutor claims there's a valid (but bad) reason the Assange case drags on and on. You can believe that or you might let yourself try on another theory by 'Citizen X'. From 10 September.

Citizens! Today it's been three weeks since Anna Ardin and Sofia Wilén waltzed into the Klara police station to accuse WikiLeaks frontman Julian Assange of rape.

The Swedish judicial system reacted instinctively. The alarm was sounded immediately. Prosecutor on duty Maria Häljebo Kjellstrand ruled already before the interrogation to arrest Julian Assange in absentia and in addition ordered the police to search for him in Stockholm's fashionable entertainment district. The order was the same as always when a woman accuses a man of rape: catch him and put him behind bars without the ability to communicate with the world outside.

But this time things didn't work out as planned. For one, the police couldn't find Julian Assange and therefore couldn't lock him up for the duration of the investigation, something that normally happens in Sweden to men accused of rape. Then someone leaked the story to the media that Julian Assange was accused of rape. Prosecutor on duty Maria Häljebo Kjellstrand was dumb enough to verify this when a reporter from Expressen rang her on Friday evening. The day after the news spread like wildfire around the globe.

Anna Ardin was not herself slow in smearing Julian Assange. Already the day after she'd accused him of rape she said in an interview with Aftonbladet that Assange is 'a man with a warped view of womanhood who doesn't know how to take no for an answer'. Not long after this her social democrat friends start casting aspersions at Assange online.

Chief prosecutor Eva Finné took over the case and quickly realised there is no basis for the case made by Anna Ardin and Sofia Wilén. And she evidently understood it wouldn't be possible to do what they otherwise do in cases like this with next to no evidence at all - because the whole world was listening to every word the Swedish judicial system said. So she dismissed the accusations against Assange.

But this made the plaintiffs' counsel Claes Borgström go through the roof. To question women and not believe their stories goes against the Swedish state-sponsored feminism which the social democrats support. And it's hardly a coincidence that Anna Ardin and Sofia Wilén are represented by Claes Borgström. Both Anna Ardin and Claes Borgström are social democrats and radical feminists. In their world, women never lie about rape, even less make false accusations about their male one night stands.

So Claes Borgström demanded a review of the case. Which returned prestige to the judicial system. After a while, most likely with a lot of political pressure, chief prosecutor Marianna Ny reopened the case. Julian Assange was again suspected of rape and sexual harassment.



That's almost two weeks ago but not a lot has happened, aside from Julian Assange realising Leif Silbersky isn't the right person to represent him. Sweden has other defence attorneys. A few days ago it became Björn Hurtig who will represent Julian Assange. He's already said there is something very wrong with the case and that he believes Julian Assange will demand damages from the government when the case is finally dismissed.

For that's what most likely will happen. Several weeks have gone by and Marianne Ny hasn't even asked to interrogate Julian Assange about the accusations. For three weeks the prosecutor together with Anna Ardin and Sofia Wilén have been trying to find evidence to convict Julian Assange. Anna Ardin and Sofia Wilén are additionally helped by Claes Borgström to rephrase their stories so they sound more believable and more like rape.

In similar cases where 'ordinary' men are accused, the 'suspects' would have sat locked up for three weeks by now. They wouldn't have been interrogated either but would have spent 23 of the day's 24 hours locked in an empty room without contact with the outside world.

One hour per day they'd be let out to walk around alone in a courtyard. And then suddenly one night they'd be woken, dragged to an interrogation room and put up against the wall, and told to 'confess'. Precisely as with Julian Assange, they're never told precisely what they're accused of - only that the police have proof they're guilty. Of something. They either 'confess' - or they go right back to their cell.

You might think the Assange case would set off warning sirens - but no. Civil rights don't have a high priority in Sweden. On the contrary - Sweden is closer to a paradise for false accusers.

Julian Assange doesn't seem to have fully grasped what's been happening to him. He still thinks this is about WikiLeaks. That he's the victim of a conspiracy where the US pressures Sweden to stop WiliLeaks from putting up servers in the country. He hasn't understood that he's fallen into the hands of feminist judicial system where the word of a scorned woman weighs immeasurably heavier than that of a man - and in this case even worse: a foreign man. Neither has he understood he's been pretty lucky so far. The attention the media have given his case can be his rescue. If he'd been an ordinary Swedish man he'd most likely have already been convicted and sent up the river.

It shouldn't take more than a week or two to investigate a case like this. But now it's been three weeks already and the Swedish judicial system still doesn't know how to get out of this without losing face. The question is whether Marianne Ny would dare dismiss the case before the national elections. That would make the social democrats, Claes Borgström, and the entire state-sponsored feminist apparatus look really bad.

But pushing the case to trial would probably be worse. That would show the world what a rotten judicial system we have in Sweden. That men can be brought into court only on the subjective testimony of a woman. The entire world would laugh at the trial and at the Swedish judicial system. The only way out is to take care of the matter behind closed doors, but up to now everything in the affair has leaked like a sieve.

So Marianne Ny stands there like a jackass between two bales of hay and has to choose between poor alternatives. And she's most likely under political pressure as well. If she chooses to dismiss the case before the elections, at the same time the red-green alliance wins, she knows her days in the prosecutor's office are numbered: Claes Borgström is not only a lawyer - he's also the equality ombudsman of choice in a red-green cabinet. And he shares offices with the social democrats' minister of justice Thomas Bodström.

It's therefore likely Marianne Ny will wait until after the elections to announce her decision.

See Also
Rixstep: Assange/WikiLeaks RSS Feed
Radsoft: Assange/WikiLeaks RSS Feed

Industry Watch: Julian Assange & Anders Perklev
Medborgarperspektiv: Inget beslut för Julian Assange innan valet

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