European Arrest Warrant

2012-06-17 A Brief History of Swedish Sex: The rise and fall of "Swedish Sin"

In 2008, University of Chicago Chair and former Stockholm University professor Don Kulick observed: "From being admired and envied by many as beacons of sexual enlightenment in the 1960s and '70s, the Scandinavian countries today have some of the most repressive sex laws in the Western world. Sweden is the most draconian. ... The message conveyed by [recent laws] is clear: your sexuality is the property of the state, and the state will claim its right to regulate and punish that sexuality, wherever you may be. So whatever, indeed, happened to sex in Scandinavia?"

Although it does not directly answer Kulick's question, Oscar Swartz's new book, A Brief History of Swedish Sex: How the Nation That Gave Us Free Love Redefined Rape and Declared War on Julian Assange, traces the change that Kulick describes. Structured as a timeline, the volume vividly illustrates how a political coup by a group of radical feminists at the highest levels of government caused the free-love era of "Swedish sin" to give way to a wave of anti-sex and anti-male hysteria that vilified heterosexual sex and villainized men. It was into this morass that WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange waded when he had consensual sexual relations with Anna Ardin and Sofia Wilén -- and then became the target of a Sweden-initiated international manhunt.

2011-11-04 Overlooked evidence in the Assange trial

Authored by Bella Magnani

Since the 100-page Swedish police protocol file leaked onto the internet in February 2011, it has been widely known that the SKL (Sweden's national forensic laboratory) failed to find any chromosomal DNA -- either male or female -- on the torn, used condom that Complainant AA gave to police 12 days after the event as evidence of her allegations. For anyone who doubts this fact, it's on page 77 of the police protocol (FUP), attached below [pdf].

Now, at that point -- 25 October, 2010 -- one would hope that a competent and impartial investigations team would turn toward investigating how this forensic finding came about. Sweden takes very seriously the issue of making false claims or presenting false evidence in sex crime cases, which is punishable with a 2-year prison sentence. In this particular case, however, the lead investigation officer, Mats Gehlin, simply asked the SKL to run the test again (page 81 of the FUP). In fairness, the first result does mention a tiny speck that might be "something," which a second test later found to be a very small sample of mitochondrial DNA.

This is significant for two reasons: first, mitochondrial DNA is not uniquely identifying in the same way as chromosomal DNA; and, more importantly, a sample which contains mitochondrial DNA but no chromosomal DNA can only come from hair and nails. And, of course, a used condom should be awash with chromosomal DNA from both participants -- but this one has none.

2011-07-12 Tweet Stream - @m_cetera LIVE from Hearing July 12 and 13

For previous coverage of Julian Assange extradition trials by Mirjam Eikelboom see here. Follow @m_cetera on Twitter for coverage on July 12 and 13.

Chirpstory of @m_cetera's coverage below.

2011-07-12 Tweet Stream - Julian #Assange's hearing on July 12 & 13 #wjul

2011-07-12 Göran Rudling & Peter Kemp in Conversation about #Assange Swedish Extradition Case VIDEO #wljul

On July 10 and 11, WL Central's Alexa O'Brien moderated a conversation between Göran Rudling, former witness for the defense at the February extradition hearing for Julian Assange, and Peter Kemp, WL Central legal commentator and Australian solicitor.

Göran Rudling is a Swedish citizen and author of, "Sex, lies, no videotape and more lies. False accusations in the Assange case" in which he deconstructs the case against Julian Assange. Mr. Kemp has translated and made commentary on Mr. Rudling's article from its original Swedish.

Mr. Rudling has also recently written "Weird accusation or proof of lies? More about the Assange case", which covers some of the contents of our 2 hour discussion.

Total running time is about 2 hours. There is image degradation the first 30 seconds of Part 2 and 3. Sound quality is of lesser quality comparatively on Parts 2, 3, and 4 only.


Archive - Previous WL Central hearing coverage

Archive - Official Publications and Announcements

Archive - Featured Tweets

  • 2011-07-13: AlexiMostrous
    #Assange just passed a smiley face doodle on a post-it to John Pilger.
  • 2011-07-13: AlexiMostrous
    Judge asks why #assange wasn't interviewed over phone. "Why does judicial corporation not entail...sensible steps to get on with it"?
  • 2011-07-13: m_cetera
    Under Swedish law, the interview that's required, could take place outside of Sweden, by telephone, writing. #wljul
  • 2011-07-13: amberlymellow
    Earlier she stressed the word "accused" was never mentioned on EAW RT @auerfeld M: language of eaw "unmistakably that of accusation" #wljul
  • 2011-07-13: m_cetera
    Defense: reasonable grounds for Assange to believe there was consent: consensual sex before and after. #wljul
  • 2011-07-13: eastendlady
    #wljul #assange judge.. what happened initially not consent. that it went on may be important for us [judges] for dual criminality

Archive - Videos

  • 2011-07-13: Reuters: Assange arrives at court
    Julian Assange arrives at court on the second day of extradition hearing.
  • 2011-07-12: The Alyona Show: New Julian Assange Appeal
    Kevin Zeese : fear of extradition to the U.S. is legitimate, Sweden and U.S. have close ties.

Archive - Press Coverage

  • 2011-10-02: SMH: Moment of truth
    Moment of truth for WikiLeaks as a decision concerning Julian Assange's extradition approaches. The most recent WikiLeaks' developments and the Assange case summarized and analyzed by Guy Rundle.
  • 2011-07-15: Griffith Review: The Assange appeal and News of the World scandal
    Article by british journalist Barbara Gunnell, who was present at the hearing. Comment on press reports that followed, defense team's legal strategy and reduced media presence, due to focus on phone hacking case.
  • 2011-07-15: ZDNet: Assange journalist almost undone by Desire
    A journalist almost got in trouble with the law after he took a picture with his HTC Desire during the extradition appeal hearing. Includes a very brief but accurate summary of the court proceedings.

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