Sweden reopens Wikileaks founder rape investigation

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11151277

by DanielBMarkham • 16 years ago

22 22 16 years ago

bbc.co.uk

If there is sufficient evidence here then an investigation is right and proper. It's easy to see this as about Julian Assange but it's also about someone who claims that they've been raped - something which has to be taken seriously.

I don't see a particular issue with the original prosecutor being overruled by his seniors - in cases such as this I'd imagine that they want to make sure that they do everything they can make sure that they get it right and appear above reproach and if in doubt investigate it properly seems a sensible approach.

Andrew_Quentin• 16 years ago

I agree. Rape is a serious crime, regardless of who, by whom or to whom. However, it would be difficult to say that the handling of this case has been proper. To the contrary, it seems like a complete mess.

The prosecutors seem to be playing a PR game very publicly. A proper investigation does not issue an arrest straight away, retreat the arrest, then issue an arrest again once the mood has calmed down.

ithkuil• 16 years ago

reminds me of Prosecutor Ekström from the Millenium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Trilogy)

berntb• 16 years ago

>>The prosecutors seem to be playing a PR game very publicly.

I'm not going to argue that Swedish prosecutors won't play a PR game -- but I do think a good argument could be made that if Hanlon's razor was ever apt, it would be for Swedish police/prosecution... :-(

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

judofyr• 16 years ago

I like Opplysningskontoret's (a Norwegian version of The Onion) summary:

The contents of Wikileaks-founder leaks into Swedish women.

joey_bananas2• 16 years ago

Yes, nothing like rape for a good chuckle.

MarkBook• 16 years ago

If wikileaks should be allowed to leak state secrets then why should some jokes be taboo?

philk2• 16 years ago

It is possible to maintain a sense of humor and joke about something without actually condoning it.

bl4k3• 16 years ago

The bad things about this case is that whatever happens to Mr Assange, or how he is perceived in the media and by the wider world, directly impacts the credibility of wikileaks itself (like it or not).

A site that is built on a great ideal can now be easily dismissed by doubters and opponents because of the actions of its figurehead.

The people behind wikileaks should have remained anonymous and not given their enemies a target to attempt to take down.

Instead, Mr Assange reveled in the attention and tempted opponents of wikileaks to make a case of him.

jacquesm3• 16 years ago

I think the fact that they were not anonymous tremendously helped the credibility of wikileaks.

That that backfires now is not a reason to say it was bad of them to do this in the first place.

Also, there is nobody guilty until they've been proven guilty.

If this is a smear job and it comes out as such in the longer term then wikileaks stature will only grow, if it isn't and Assange steps down I don't doubt that the next person to take his place will know that he/she is living in a glass box and needs to act accordingly.

wikileaks > Julian Assange.

roel_v• 16 years ago

"wikileaks \> Julian Assange."

Well that remains to be seen. Sure they have some sysadmins and lawyers in the background, but how many people are there going to be willing to live the lifestyle mr. Assange lives, traveling around the world from city to city, relying on a wide support network to provide him with places to stay, secure contacts, means of communication? Not much is known about him, but the journalists who have been digging into his past mostly come up with a highly unusual individual, not someone who can easily be replaced by an ad in the Economist like so many international aid organizations traditionally do when they lose a high-level employee for one reason or another.

bl4k3• 16 years ago

It is a smear campaign, so they don't have to wait for a guilty or innocent verdict - the charges alone are doing enough damage.

I like the old wikileaks, before Julian starting getting his face on the news as being the spokesperson. Wikileaks is now editorialized, which makes it easy for the right to write it off as part of the liberal media. It all started with the 'collateral murder' video (the chosen title says a lot).

They should let the documents speak for themselves, and leave wikileaks to be the online de facto venue for such documents.

api• 16 years ago

This is a great example of why the net still needs a lot of work to make it less centralized.

The problem here is that Wikileaks is Wikileaks. It is an entity with a face, a central location, etc.

Sweden reopens Wikileaks founder rape investigation

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