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261

Julian Assange's sexual assault accuser is "happy" he's free (www.bbc.com)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

70 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Swedish human rights activist Anna Ardin is glad Julian Assange is free.

But the claims she has made about him suggest she would have every reason not to wish him well.

Ardin is fiercely proud of Assange's work for WikiLeaks, and insists that it should never have landed him behind bars.

“We have the right to know about the wars that are fought in our name,” she says.

Speaking to Ardin over Zoom in Stockholm, it quickly becomes clear that she has no problem keeping what she sees as the two Assanges apart in her head - the visionary activist and the man who she says does not treat women well.

She is at pains to describe him neither as a hero nor a monster, but a complicated man.

(page 2) 21 comments

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

What about the 3rd man, who espouses his organization isn't an arbiter of information, and yet, repeatedly prevented Russian leaks from being published? 🤔

And with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, where is wikileaks now?

Cozy Bear really appreciated having such a loyal publisher, I imagine.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I still see absolutely no reason to lock him up. Just because he's biased towards one side that doesn't make the crimes of the other side any better. Ideally, yes, he should publish everything. But that's not the case. And it's still irrelevant.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Yeah I'm not necessarily in disagreement there. Though I respect those whistle-blowers who are willing to be a martyr for a cause they believe in. Ellsberg faced justice head on, for example. Meanwhile Snowden fled to one of the most corrupt countries in the world with a vendetta against the USA, and Greenwald is now parroting Kremlin propaganda strangely. Assange is somewhere in the middle for me.

At the end of the day, Assange effectively did face justice and came out the other side, so I give credit.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago

Strictly speaking, he didn't. He ran out the clock on the statute of limitations for the all but one of the sexual assault charges in Sweden while in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and prosecutors said enough evidence was lost to time that they weren't going to be able to indict on the remaining charge.

https://www.reuters.com/article/world/sweden-drops-assange-rape-investigation-after-nearly-10-years-idUSKBN1XT1PW/

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[–] [email protected] 64 points 4 months ago (3 children)

This, to me, is less important than the fact that this woman is publicly talking about how someone can do a bad thing but still be a public good, something not talked about enough in a world where when someone does something bad, it makes people ignore everything else they're doing.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 4 months ago (9 children)

I have struggled with this a lot in recent years. For example, I grew up with Ender's Game as my favorite book. Orson Scott Card is a racist/misogynistic/etc POS, and it has tainted my view of his books. People are experiencing this with J. K. Rowling right now.

I like to think I can keep the artist separate from their art, but it's hard.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (20 children)

The Rowling shift is a gut punch in particular for me because I also long admired her specifically. A single impoverished mother writing her drafts on napkins while taking the train to work. Her work for Amnesty International. Her fierce rejection of right-wing extremism and fascism...I remember saving her Harvard commence address as being the most powerful one I've ever heard. The road to hell is paved with good intentions? I don't know. Frustrating because INFJ-to-INFJ I relate to her personality type.

Meanwhile her books were incredibly impactful of my upbringing and my relationship with my mother as well.

Controversial though this may be I don't view her as some evil anti-Semitic trans-lynching nazi in lieu of her views. Misguided, sure, but in the aggregation of all she is I'm still struggling with the mixed bag of her character. Maybe that's my own cognitive dissonance; maybe it's hers.

Edit: Side-note, Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow were incredible books. I'm only heartbroken that the opportunity was missed to have Anton Yelchin cast as Ender in a better film adaptation we shall never see.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

The worst part with Rowling is she just keeps doubling down, and directly uses her money and influence to make other peoples lives worse.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I dealt with that as a kid with Roald Dahl because he was super antisemitic, but he also wrote amazing children's books. I guess for me it depends on how much they put such ugliness into their work. Lovecraft, creative as he was, had no problem being racist in his writings and I just can't read them even though I love the mythos. Dahl didn't do that.

Card and Rowling are somewhat different cases because they didn't start by writing terrible things, but they got to the point that their ugly beliefs began to seep into their books.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Dahl is another great example. I loved his book as a kid, and still read them to my kid now.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago

That's fair. That isn't where my own head is currently but I do appreciate nuance for once. People can be complicated, and I'm certain she knows the real Assange better than most.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

And with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, where is wikileaks now?

I mean what do you want him to leak? Everything is out there for everyone to see.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago (1 children)

If you're saying this tongue-in-cheek to note that it's flatly obvious that Putin is a corrupt imperialist tyrant, true I agree. But there is always more damaging information to be revealed not just to the world but internally to the people of Russia within the echo-chamber. For instance, more on Putin's personal finances. More on Aleksandr Dugin, Putin's neo-nazi Rasputin, etc.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Did Assange ever have access to that information? I admittedly don't know the details but I don't tbink he was ever in that kind of position.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

No idea, honestly. But historical precedent would suggest that he would ignore it even if he did.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

They set off a chain of events which saw him trying to avoid extradition to Sweden by seeking asylum in a London embassy for seven years.In 2019 the Swedish authorities ended their investigation.

If this was the case, he probably would have committed an offence under Swedish law.Later, Ardin writes that she heard from another woman - named in legal papers as SW - who had attended the seminar.

In a 2016 statement to Swedish prosecutors, Assange maintained that his sexual relationship with SW was entirely consensual, and that in texts seen by his lawyers, she told a friend that she had been “half asleep”.Both women filed police reports - Ardin's case was categorised as alleged sexual misconduct, and SW's as alleged rape.The press got hold of the reports, setting off an extraordinary series of events.

Now we have the first one.”Another post followed the next day: “Reminder: US intelligence planned to destroy WikiLeaks as far back as 2008.”Assange’s UK lawyer Mark Stephens claimed that a “honeytrap” had been sprung and that “dark forces” were at work.A social media furore erupted which Ardin describes as “hell” – she tells me the amount of harassment and death threats forced her to leave Sweden at one point.“I couldn’t work.

Greece’s former Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis, a long-time supporter of Assange, last week described her claims as “mud” and “innuendo”.No evidence has ever been found to link Ardin with US intelligence.

Months after the incidents, an international arrest warrant was issued for Assange, who was in London at that point.In December 2010, he admitted to the BBC that it was “not probable” he was part of a classic honey-trap operation - but he still denied any wrongdoing.Assange was convinced that if he went to Sweden he would then be extradited to the US - where he feared the death penalty awaited.

The original article contains 1,510 words, the summary contains 308 words. Saved 80%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] [email protected] 254 points 4 months ago (4 children)

How dare she not view the world in stark black-and-white terms!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago

A(n actual) Christian deacon who believes in forgiveness????

ObViOuSLy HeS iNnOcEnT!/1!

[–] [email protected] 126 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (4 children)

She's throwing out the whole playbook and trying this new thing the hipsters are calling: "Nuance" . This lady has some balls, what's next?? CONTROLLING YOUR EMOTIONS???