After more than 500 days in England fighting extradition to Sweden, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has lost his last appeal at the U.K. Supreme Court and will likely have to answer questions related to sexual misconduct. The basic dispute was whether the Swedish prosecutor had the authority to issue an extradition order. The court decided 5-2 that he did.
Assange and his team were granted two weeks to consider further legal action, so it’s still possible that he can avoid extradition, but unlikely.
The allegations stem from Assange’s 2010 visit to Sweden on a speaking tour. His organization had just released the “Collateral Murder” helicopter video and was riding a wave of publicity. During the trip, Assange had two sexual encounters with Wikileaks volunteers during which he didn’t wear a condom. The sex was consensual, but Assange seems to have had a problem with using condoms.
The first woman had a consensual encounter with Assange that became violent when she attempted to reach for a condom, with Assange pinning her down. He then allegedly released her and agreed to wear the condom, but did something that caused it to rip, and continued to have sex. (Classy.)
The second woman also initially had consensual sex with Assange using a condom. But later, Assange allegedly began having sex with her while she was asleep.
She woke up and asked, “Are you wearing anything?”
Assange, being a romantic, answered, “You.”
Understandably worried about the dude who seems super weird about practicing safe sex, the two women went to police in order to get Assange to submit to an HIV test. This did not happen, but the police questioned Assange about what seems to have been, at the very least, a sleazy move. Assuming that it happened, ripping a condom and having sex with a sleeping person does sound a tiny bit rapey.
Assange subsequently left the country and, when police issued an arrest warrant in order to further question him, he did not comply. It’s this warrant Assange has fought now for almost two years.
Meanwhile, the spectre of possible extradition to the United States hangs over the Australian hacker. Some very prominent people consider him an enemy of the state and, as we all know, Guantanamo is still open.
The Guardian
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