Julian Assange in Sweden

J. Sims Guy

Description

Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, was in Sweden for almost seven weeks during August and September 2010. What happened to him during those seven weeks is a story familiar to many people in Sweden, because it is in the Swedish language. Here, for the first time, is the story for English-speaking readers, much of it from official Swedish police documents. The first section of the book reports items day by day. Assange was invited to Sweden to give a seminar. He gave his seminar on Saturday 14 August and that evening a crayfish party was held in his honour. On Wednesday 18 August, he applied for a work permit and residence permit in Sweden. With these permits he would also be able to apply for a publishing certificate which would give him and WikiLeaks strong legal protection in Sweden. On Friday 20 August two women walked into a police station. That evening, Julian Assange was sought for arrest on suspicion of rape and this was reported in the newspaper Expressen and subsequently world-wide. The next day the arrest order was cancelled and the suspicion of rape dropped. On Wednesday 1 September, the suspicion of rape against Assange was resurrected. On Monday 27 September Assange had waited for almost four weeks to be interrogated by the police but nothing had happened so he left Sweden. Other sections of the book provide information on key events, short biographies of the main characters, a review of the Swedish justice system, full translations of all the available police documents, and a final section reports the legal and business activities of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks in Sweden during that period.

Sujets

• Lettres et linguistique

Informations

• Publié par: B T Publications
• Date de parution: 12 octobre 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781909270459
• Langue: English

Extrait

Julian Assange in Sweden
- what really happened
By Guy J. Sims
Julian Assange in Sweden -what really happened Copyright © 2012 Guy J. Sims
Table of Contents


Introduction
Chapter 1: A haven
Chapter 2: At the seminar
Chapter 3: At the crayfish party
Chapter 4: To Enköping
Chapter 5: Work permit application
Chapter 6: At the police station
Chapter 7: Arrest order cancelled
Chapter 8: Three different versions
Chapter 9: Create and sign a new interrogation
Chapter 10: Rape claim resurrected
Chapter 11: Only one police officer
Chapter 12: Julian in Berlin
Chapter 13: The secret arrest order
Chapter 14: Comments, At the police station
Chapter 15: Comments. A---’s interrogation
Chapter 16: Comments. The condoms
Chapter 17: Comments. At Julian’s interrogation
Chapter 18: Comments. More interrogations
Chapter 19: Comments. When Julian Assange left Sweden
Chapter 20: Comments. Mona Sahlin
Chapter 21: A---
Chapter 22: W---
Chapter 23: Police Inspector Irmeli Krans
Chapter 24: Police Inspector Mats Gehlin
Chapter 25: Chief Prosecutor Eva Finné
Chapter 26: Marianne Ny
Chapter 27: Claes Borgström
Chapter 28: K---
Chapter 29: Minister of Justice, Beatrice Ask
Chapter 30: Dan Eliasson
Chapter 31: Margareta Winberg
Chapter 32: Niklas Svensson
Chapter 33: The Social Democrats and the prostitutes
Chapter 34: The Swedish Criminal Code
Chapter 35: Lay judges in Sweden
Chapter 36: Feminist associations
Chapter 37: W--- interrogation
Chapter 38: A--- interrogation
Chapter 39: Julian Assange interrogation
Chapter 40: P--- interrogation
Chapter 41: K--- interrogation
Chapter 42: H--- interrogation
Chapter 43: V--- interrogation
Chapter 44: Johannes Wahlström interrogation
Chapter 45: Donald Boström interrogation
Chapter 46: B--- interrogation
Chapter 47: S--- interrogation
Chapter 48: T--- interrogation
Chapter 49: Report of offence: A---
Chapter 50: Report of offence: W---
Chapter 51: Memo: Inspector Wassgren
Chapter 52: Memo, condoms 20/10
Chapter 53: Memo, condom 28/10
Chapter 54: The serious stuff
Introduction
Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, was in Sweden for almost seven weeks during August and September 2010. What happened to him during those seven weeks is a story familiar to many people in Sweden, because it is in the Swedish language. Here, for the first time, is the story for English-speaking readers.
Much of the text here is translated from police interrogations. Alternative translations of the police interrogations, in full, are available on rixstep.com. The Swedish originals of the interrogations are available on several websites.
Chapter 1: A haven
Julian Assange. “I only visited Sweden because the FBI came to the UK and raided one of my alleged source’s mother’s house, Bradley Manning, in Wales. So the FBI was here in the UK, stomping around the UK, and we thought I’d better get out. And I managed to get some people to write an invite to a talk on the first casualty of... Sorry, the first casualty of the war is the truth, in Sweden, and use that invite as sort-of a safe passage to get out through UK customs to Sweden.” (Julian Assange interviewed on Late Night Live Radio, 6 June 2012.)
“I had not given up the idea of finding a haven where we might do our work in peace. Sweden looked possible. It was regarded as an independent, liberal country, with a Freedom of Information Act going back to the 1780s and a constitution that makes special and lengthy provision for the protection of press freedom.” (Julian Assange, police interrogation 30 August 2010, the original transcript is in Swedish.)
“You asked how I came to know A--- [Political Secretary and Press Officer of the Brotherhood Movement]. In order to come here to Sweden it was necessary for me to obtain diplomatic support in order to get out of England. On account of the security situation between my organization and the Pentagon. Political contacts in Sweden therefore suggested that I should be invited by the Christian Social Democrats to give a talk, and a formal invitation was to be sent to (inaudible) and England, so that I should have a safe journey here. From England. And I understood that A--- was Press Officer of the Brotherhood Movement within the Christian Social Democrats.” (Julian Assange, police interrogation.)
Assange was helped by a young Swedish journalist, Johannes Wahlström, who explained that A--- of the Brotherhood Movement sent airline tickets for Julian Assange.
(Johannes is pronounced Yohannis, with the stress on “hann”, and Wahlström is pronounced “Valstrerm,” with the stress on the first syllable.)
“And for practical reasons, she sent me airline tickets, for him. And on top of that, she and the rest of the Brotherhood Movement looked after the purely practical issues, I don’t really know how it works administratively with them. What I was told was that they were inviting him to a seminar and they were fixing his accommodation until a few days after the seminar.” (Johannes Wahlström, police interrogation 20 September 2010.)
Julian Assange. “I suspect, without really knowing, that she was presumably asked by her superior to send the tickets to me. And as to how the actual process of contact went, for my part I don’t know.” (Julian Assange, police interrogation.)
Tuesday 10 August
A--- announced on her Twitter: 19.46 from a---: @the Christian Left has invited Julian Assange from WikiLeaks to Sweden. He is coming!! Seminar Saturday in Stockholm #fb (The original tweet is in Swedish.)
Also that day. the Daily Beast reported that the Obama administration was pressing Britain, Germany, Australia, and other allied Western governments to consider opening criminal investigations of WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange and to severely limit his nomadic travels across international borders, according to American officials.
Friday 13 August
On Friday 13 August, Julian Assange signed an agreement to write a column for the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.
Also that day, the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, published an interview with Torbjörn Gustafsson of the information unit of the Swedish Armed Forces. There was clear disapproval of WikiLeaks and the publication of the 15,000 Afghanistan documents.
The economic blockade against WikiLeaks began, with Moneybookers, which commenced its blockade on or about 13 August.
Julian Assange was to stay in A---’s empty apartment.
Johannes Wahlström. “… She [A---] and the rest of the Brotherhood Movement looked after the purely practical issues… What I was told was that they were inviting him to a seminar and they were fixing his accommodation until a few days after the seminar …
“In view of the fact that the Brotherhood Movement invited him, they undertook to ensure that he would have somewhere to live.
“But what I do remember very clearly was that A---, she was to come back to Stockholm one day earlier. But there was no problem as regards him staying there because she had somewhere else she could go. And during that day we had a meeting with a representative of the Brotherhood Movement. And he told me about this. He told me that A--- would come back one day earlier. But there was no problem, Julian could stay there and she would live somewhere else.
“But then she came on the Friday. So, and then it was a bit like, oh dear, what’s going to happen now, where will Julian stay this night, and suchlike. But as I understand it, they went out to eat, and then they went home, and then decided that Julian shall continue to stay there in her bed. So it was quite simply, that A--- quite simply understood that, my [= her] apartment was empty, it could be used. And offered it to Julian, and then he stayed there another week.” (Johannes Wahlström, police interrogation.)
When A--- came home early
This is how Julian Assange explained it. “The parliamentary duty that had guaranteed me safe passage to Stockholm meant that I was under the care of a group of Social Democrats, many of whom had functions with other political groupings. I was told I would be able to stay at the flat of a political worker called A---, who was away from her apartment. I went there and after a few days she returned early. Ms A--- was a political spokesperson for the party and was involved in the arrangements to bring me over. I had no reason not to trust her, and no reason, when she pointed out that there was only one bed and would I be cool sleeping with her, to believe that this was naught but a friendly suggestion. I said yes, anyhow, and we went to bed together that night. …
“Speaking honestly, I would have to say that I thought A--- was a little neurotic. But our night together was unremarkable. We had sex several times and the next day everything was fine between us.” (Julian Assange, Unauthorised Autobiography)
This was the night that A--- later claimed Assange had molested her. But she did not make the accusation until Friday 20 August.
Saturday 14 August
The next day, Johannes Wahlström went to A---’s apartment to collect Assange and take him to the building where Assange was to give his seminar, on the Afghan War Diaries, entitled, “Truth is the First Casualty of War.”
“And so I rang the doorbell. I knew for a start that Julian would not be able to find his way on his own. And also, he had some difficulty in getting to places on time. So I thought it would be a kind gesture to wake him up. I was one of the few people in Sweden who knew where he was. So I rang the doorbell and to my astonishment it was opened by A---. And she … she looked, well, you can say she looked as if she had not expected to see me, you can say that. And I had definitely not expected to see her that morning. And I asked in a very discreet way whether she had arrived now, so to say.”
Ewa Olofsson (police interrogator): “But you knew that it was A---?”
JW: “I knew that … she introduced herself.”
JW: “And so I went into the apartme