Injustice

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The evil English.

Swedish allegations
The Swedish case has been closed and reopened three times, without new evidence. The Swedish allegations derived from August 2010, when Julian was in Sweden three weeks after the publication of the Afghan War Logs, following which the US described WikiLeaks as a “very real and potential threat”.

Two women went to the Swedish police after having separate sexual encounters with Julian in order to request he undergo an STD test. The police filed these reports as one case of “rape” and another of “molestation”. However, the Chief Prosecutor of Stockholm, Eva Finné, reviewed and then dropped the preliminary investigation into the “rape” case, stating that “no crime at all” had been committed and that “the evidence did not disclose any evidence of rape”; the Chief Prosecutor then cancelled the arrest warrant for Julian, who remained in Sweden in order to cooperate in the investigation. However, seven days later, another prosecutor, Marianne Ny, reopened the preliminary investigation.

Text messages between the two women, which were later revealed, do not complain of rape. Rather, they show that the women “did not want to put any charges on JA but that the police were keen on getting a grip on him” and that they “only wanted him to take a test”. One wrote that “it was the police who made up the charges” and told a friend that she felt that she had been “railroaded by police and others around her”.

Julian provided several affidavits professing innocence of any allegations and always made himself available for questioning by the Swedish authorities. Despite numerous false media reports asserting that Julian faced charges by the Swedish police, no charges were ever brought.

Emails released under a tribunal challenge following a Freedom of Information Act request revealed that the Swedish authorities wanted to drop the arrest warrant for Julian in 2013 – it was the British government that insisted it continue. UK prosecutors admitted to deleting key emails and engaged in elaborate attempts to keep correspondence from the public record.

After initially stating that it was illegal to question him in the UK, the Swedish prosecutor finally took Julian’s statement on 14 November 2016. It began:

“You have subjected me to six years of unlawful, politicized detention without charge in prison, under house arrest and four and a half years at this embassy. You should have asked me this question six years ago. Your actions in refusing to take my statement for the last six years have been found to be unlawful by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and by the Swedish Court of Appeal. You have been found to have subjected me to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. You have denied me effective legal representation in this process. Despite this, I feel compelled to cooperate even though you are not safeguarding my rights.”

Six months later, in May 2017, Swedish prosecutors announced that they were withdrawing their arrest warrant for Julian and the investigation was halted. The London Metropolitan Police released a statement confirming it would arrest Julian if he left the embassy over the bail issue in 2012.

Following Assange’s arrest, Swedish prosecutors announced they were reopening the investigation. As of July 2019, the Swedish Prosecution Authority has said it is examining the evidence and will not be requesting a European Investigation Order for the time being.

A Freedom of Information Act request revealed that, in 2013, Sweden wanted to drop the case but kept it open after UK authorities pressured Swedish prosecutors to do so.