Julian Assange confronts a sexual misconduct severe accusations in Sweden. But he believes it’s a smear campaign as his sexual relations were always consensual.
“I have never, either in Sweden nor in any other country, had sex with anyone in a way that was not based on both sides being completely voluntary,” he told the newspaper Aftonbladet in a story Sunday he doesn’t know who was behind it, “but we have been warned that, for example, the Pentagon is planning on using dirty tricks to destroy our work.” He said he was also warned about so-called “sex traps.” Asked by the paper if he has fallen for one of those traps, he said, “Maybe. Maybe not.”
Assange said the on-call prosecutor should be criticized, as well as the media “who so blindly reported these accusations.” Assange, in remarks here to Al-Jazeera on Sunday, said authorities had reached “the height of irresponsibility” and said he believed he was the target of a smear campaign.
Meanwhile the duty prosecutor Maria Haljebo Kjellstrand said that she “did not regret her decision”.
“I received a report from the police which seemed to me to be sufficient to arrest him. On Friday evening I got a call from the police describing what the women said. The information I received was convincing enough for me to take my decision,” Hljebo Kjellstrand was saying. One of two women involved told in an interview that she had never intended Assange to be charged with rape. She said each had had voluntary relations with Assange: “The responsibility for what happened to me and the other girl lies with a man who had attitude problems with women.”
