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WikiLeaks' Assange interrogated by police

Published: 31 Aug 10 09:34 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/28678/20100831/

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been interviewed by police in Sweden regarding allegations of molestation, his lawyer confirmed on Tuesday.

Leif Silbersky, one of Sweden's top defence attorneys, said police had questioned his client in his presence for about an hour Monday evening and that the interrogation went "very well."

"I expect the prosecutor will drop the whole thing," he told AFP.

A Swedish duty prosecutor issued an arrest warrant for Assange on the evening of Friday August 20th over an allegation of rape but chief prosecutor Eva Finné abruptly withdrew it the next day, saying new information had come to light.

Then last week, Finné said there was no reason to believe a crime had been committed in that case, but said she had enough evidence to continue probing a molestation allegation from another woman against the 39-year-old Australian.

"The whole story is very bizarre," Silbersky lamented Tuesday, pointing out that his client had faced "different prosecutors and different charges that have now basically boiled down to nothing."

Meanwhile, the lawyer of the two women who have made the accusations against Assange said last Friday he had appealed the prosecutor's decision not to open a rape probe.

Assange himself has said the allegations against him are part of a "smear campaign" aimed at discrediting his whistleblowing website, which is locked in a row with the Pentagon over the release of secret US documents about the war in Afghanistan.

WikiLeaks published nearly 77,000 classified US military documents on the war in Afghanistan on July 23 and has said it will publish another 15,000 within the next week or so.

AFP/The Local (news@thelocal.se)

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10:37 August 31, 2010 by Tutu
Somebody should blow the whistle on what actually happened between him and the 2 women
10:49 August 31, 2010 by Capey
@Tutu

Should everyone's private lives now be made public? Leave the man alone.
14:53 August 31, 2010 by Audrian
I suspect that It is a conspiracy to discredit a brave man who is fighting for freedom of information. The US and its allies are conducting secret wars in several countries including Yemen, Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan. Unknown number of civilians are being killed for oil and conrol of the region. Weekleak is exposing this illegal and cruel military campaign.

It is possible the two woman were planted by a secret agent of this power.
16:18 August 31, 2010 by Capey
I agree that WikiLeaks is doing the world a great service by exposing stuff that people don't want others to know about, and fighting for a free flow of information.

There is far too much being covered up and far too much manipulation of information, with "official stories" being pumped through to and by the media groups as the only "truths". Peter Drucker said that the most important part of communication is to hear what isn't being said. That is what WikiLeaks is doing.
20:11 August 31, 2010 by idun09
To this American, the timing of the original allegation -- on a Friday evening, with a deputy prosecutor on duty and an entire weekend's news cycle ahead -- has Washington's fingerprints all over it.
21:40 August 31, 2010 by Andersson
Next comes SFI for him.
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