WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Accused of Rape
(Aug. 21) — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is wanted by officials in Sweden on suspicion of rape and molestation.
Swedish authorities issued a warrant for his arrest Friday, in connection with two separate cases, The Associated Press reported.
“He should get in contact with police so that he can be confronted with the suspicions,” Karin Rosander, a spokeswoman for the Swedish Prosecution Authority, told the AP.
Assange, 39, an Australian with no fixed address, spends much of his time in Sweden to take advantage of its legal protections for his whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks.
WikiLeaks angered U.S. authorities last month by leaking classified documents related to the war in Afghanistan. The U.S. government accused WikiLeaks compromising military security and potentially putting lives in danger.
Assange, 39, denied the allegations of rape and molestation on the WikiLeaks Twitter page.
“The charges are without basis and their issue at this moment is deeply disturbing,” he tweeted.
Swedish newspaper Expressen was the first to report the accusations. The WikiLeaks Twitter page dismissed Expressen as “a tabloid.”
Assange “didn’t know of the charges until he read them in the right wing tabloid Expressen this morning”, Kristinn Hrafnsson, a colleague of Assange’s at WikiLeaks, told Agence France-Presse. “There are powerful organizations who want to do harm to WikiLeaks.”
The Australian is believed to be in Sweden, but there are no reports that he has turned himself in.
He held a press conference in Stockholm last week, where he said that WikiLeaks planned to go ahead and publish 15,000 more secret documents on the war in Afghanistan.
Assange also spoke at a seminar held by Sweden’s Social Democratic Party and said he would begin writing columns for a left-wing newspaper, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Hrafnsson told AFP that Assange would “go to the police very quickly.”
(excerpt)
"Swedish authorities issued a warrant for his arrest Friday, in connection with two separate cases, The Associated Press reported.“He should get in contact with police so that he can be confronted with the suspicions,” Karin Rosander, a spokeswoman for the Swedish Prosecution Authority, told the AP.
Assange, 39, an Australian with no fixed address, spends much of his time in Sweden to take advantage of its legal protections for his whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks".