In Saturday's edition of The Guardian-one of the papers that has been on the regular receiving-end of WikiLieaks documents, including the latest US diplomatic cables--readers could read the full rape allegations against Julian Assange.
The article, based on "police material held in Stockholm to which the Guardian received unauthorised access," does not make for pretty reading:
One of the women, named in court as Miss A, told police that she had arranged Mr. Assange's trip to Sweden, and let him stay in her flat because she was due to be away. She returned early, on Friday Aug. 13, after which the pair went for a meal and then returned to her flat.
Her account to police, which Mr. Assange disputes, stated that he began stroking her leg as they drank tea, before he pulled off her clothes and snapped a necklace that she was wearing. According to her statement she "tried to put on some articles of clothing as it was going too quickly and uncomfortably but Mr. Assange ripped them off again". Miss A told police that she didn't want to go any further "but that it was too late to stop Mr. Assange as she had gone along with it so far", and so she allowed him to undress her.
According to the statement, Miss A then realised he was trying to have unprotected sex with her. She told police that she had tried a number of times to reach for a condom but Mr. Assange had stopped her by holding her arms and pinning her legs. The statement records Miss A describing how Mr. Assange then released her arms and agreed to use a condom, but she told the police that at some stage Mr. Assange had "done something" with the condom that resulted in it becoming ripped, and ejaculated without withdrawing.
When he was later interviewed by police in Stockholm, Mr. Assange agreed that he had had sex with Miss A but said he did not tear the condom, and that he was not aware that it had been torn. He told police that he had continued to sleep in Miss A's bed for the following week and she had never mentioned a torn condom.
Miss W. told the police she and Mr. Assange had visited the place where she worked and had then gone to a cinema where they had moved to the back row. He had kissed her and put his hands inside her clothing, she said.
That evening, Miss A held a party at her flat. One of her friends, "Monica", later told police that during the party Miss A had told her about the ripped condom and unprotected sex. Another friend told police that during the evening Miss A told her she had had "the worst sex ever" with Mr. Assange: "Not only had it been the world's worst screw, it had also been violent."
Mr. Assange's supporters point out that, despite her complaints against him, Miss A held a party for him on that evening and continued to allow him to stay in her flat.
On Sunday Aug. 15, Monica told police that Miss A told her that she thought Mr. Assange had torn the condom on purpose. According to Monica, Miss A said Mr. Assange was still staying in her flat but they were not having sex because he had "exceeded the limits of what she felt she could accept" and she did not feel safe.
The following day, Miss W phoned Mr. Assange and arranged to meet him late in the evening, according to her statement. The pair went back to her flat in Enkoping, near Stockholm. Miss W told police that though they started to have sex, Mr. Assange had not wanted to wear a condom, and she had moved away because she had not wanted unprotected sex. Mr. Assange had then lost interest, she said, and fallen asleep. However, during the night, they had both woken up and had sex at least once when "he agreed unwillingly to use a condom".
Early the next morning, Miss W told police, she had gone to buy breakfast before getting back into bed and falling asleep beside Mr. Assange. She had awoken to find him having sex with her, she said, but when she asked whether he was wearing a condom he said no. "According to her statement, she said: 'You better not have HIV' and he answered: 'Of course not,' " but "she couldn't be bothered to tell him one more time because she had been going on about the condom all night. She had never had unprotected sex before."
Today, readers of the Sunday New York Times can read a similar report filed by former Globe and Mail correspondent John F. Burns. This article is said to be based on a redacted version of the police file obtained from a different source, but, in actual fact, it quotes extensively from yesterday's Guardian.
Interestingly, and not without some irony, yesterday's Guardian article was written by Nick Davies-the author and journalist who served as the paper's go-between with Mr. Assange in obtaining access to the documents in the first place. In an editorial , the Guardian justifies publishing details of the police report on the rape allegations against Mr. Assange as follows:
"It is unusual for a sex-offence case to be presented outside of the judicial process in such a manner, but then it is unheard of for a defendant, his legal team and supporters to so vehemently and publicly attack women at the heart of a rape case."
Not surprisingly, Mr. Assange and his attorneys are not happy about this turn of events, as they make clear behind the pay-wall of the Sunday Times of London.
Bjorn Hurtig, Mr. Assange's Swedish lawyer, said he would lodge a formal complaint to the authorities and ask them to investigate how such sensitive police material leaked into the public domain.
"It is with great concern that I hear about this because it puts Julian and his defence in a bad position," he told a colleague.
"I do not like the idea that Julian may be forced into a trial in the media. And I feel especially concerned that he will be presented with the evidence in his own language for the first time when reading the newspaper."
"I do not know who has given these documents to the media, but the purpose can only be one thing - trying to make Julian look bad."
Not surprisingly either, The Guardian is being attacked by Mr. Assange's supporters for publishing this material. In reaction, the Sunday Times quotes a spokesperson for the Guardian as follows: "Julian is not a confidential source. The argument that the papers involved with the WikiLeaks cables should not report criticism of him is one all journalists would find ridiculous."
Mr. Assange's supporters are also continuing to allege this is all part of a CIA or other US plot against him, which elicits this reaction as reported by The Mail on Sunday:
The two women who say they were sexually assaulted by the WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange would never have complained to police if he had agreed to take an HIV test, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
WikiLeaks's Swedish co-ordinator, who worked closely with Mr. Assange for months, said in an exclusive interview that he repeatedly begged his boss to have the test, both to head off the possible police investigation and for Mr Assange's own peace of mind, given his promiscuous sex life.
'The two women told me, that if he goes to the clinic for an HIV test, then we won't go to the police,' said Mr. Assange's colleague, who wishes to remain anonymous because he is a witness in the case brought by Swedish prosecutors, which led to Mr. Assange spending nine days in Wandsworth Prison pending extradition.
'I became the middleman in these negotiations,' he added.
'I felt that if Julian had agreed to have the HIV test, they would have dropped it. I told him, "Just do it, and anyway, it's good for you, because you're sleeping around". A lot of women were extremely attracted to Julian, and after a few minutes, they offered themselves to him. From my perspective, they were like groupies with Mick Jagger, and he takes these opportunities.'
The WikiLeaks co-ordinator said he felt certain that the two women - who both allege that Mr. Assange forced them to have intercourse during the same week in August without using a condom, against their express wishes - had nothing to do with any supposed American intelligence plot to discredit him, as he has frequently claimed.
'The CIA is not behind this at all,' he said. 'Of course it is a golden opportunity for them. But from the beginning, it was personal.'
In the wake of this gusher of leaks, it's hard not to feel some sympathy for Mr. Assange; moreover, one must acknowledge that some of the material he's released to the public has been especially helpful in understanding current events in a wide variety of areas. Still, it's also difficult not to feel that Mr. Assange is now being hoist on his own petard, or as the equivalent French saying goes "c'est l'arroseur arrosé"-which, if translated literally, would be rendered as "the sprinkler has been sprinkled upon."