Swedish prosecutor reopens Assange rape investigation, will seek extradition
Sweden's state prosecutor said on Monday she would reopen an investigation into a rape allegation against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and seek his extradition from Britain.
Prosecutor Eva-Marie Persson told a news conference she would continue and conclude a preliminary investigation that was dropped in 2017 without charges being brought as Assange had taken refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy in London.
[...] The Swedish prosecutor's office said it would shortly request Assange be detained in his absence on probable cause for an allegation of rape and that it would issue a European arrest warrant - the process under which his extradition would be sought.
Please extradite me to Sweden and not the U.S.?
Also at BBC:
Wikileaks said the reopening of the rape case would give Assange "a chance to clear his name". "There has been considerable political pressure on Sweden to reopen their investigation, but there has always been political pressure surrounding this case," its editor-in-chief, Kristinn Hrafnsson, said in a statement.
A lawyer for Assange told Swedish broadcaster SVT that the decision was "embarrassing for Sweden", adding that his client wanted to resolve the case but feared being extradited to the US.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 14 2019, @12:16PM (3 children)
My understanding is this allegation is not rape at all. It is having consensual sex with two women without wearing a condom, when they happened to meet they became worried he could spread stds... or something like that for which there is no equivalent in most countries.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 14 2019, @12:32PM
they happened to meet and were pissed off he "cheated" on them.. that was the problem. nothing to do with anything else. so they "withdrew consent after the fact"
"rape" like that.
It's defining the law in broad swath like that that really fucks over the individuals that suffer "legitimate rape" (like what 95+% of people's definition). You know, where there is no consent.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 14 2019, @04:16PM
Hey, in California knowingly giving someone AIDS and stealing fifty bucks from someone's desk have similar penalties.
They take that kind of thing seriously.
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Wednesday May 15 2019, @02:55AM
She consented to have sex with him, but made it extremely clear that she wouldn't willingly have unprotected sex, and refused to do anything until he put a condom on. She then woke up the next day to find him actively screwing her bareback in direct violation of her wishes, i.e. without her consent, which qualifies as rape in most first-world countries.