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Assange: Aftonbladet's 'Inside Story'

A timeline including excerpts of case testimony.


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STOCKHOLM (Radsoft) — Aftonbladet claim to have a copy of the Assange case files. They've published a special supplement to their hardcopy edition with details of the Assange case they've not revealed online.

Aftonbladet is a tabloid - meaning they arbitrarily mix truth with fiction and hyperbole. Their articles are at best 'hearsay of hearsay' - the testimony of the girls is not corroborated and Aftonbladet's version isn't corroborated either.

That being said, one can construct a timeline based on the Aftonbladet supplement.

√ 2010-08-11 (Wednesday). Julian Assange arrives in Stockholm. He is invited by Anna Ardin of the Brotherhood Movement, an adjunct of the Social Democrat Party. Ardin is to be out of town for a few days and lets Assange stay at her flat on Tjurbergsgatan on Södermalm in Stockholm. Assange uses much of his time to meet with journalists and organisations. He has dinner with friends and a US journalist who wants to talk about his new book on the Bush clan.



Sofia Wilén contacts the Brotherhood Movement on or shortly after 11 August to get a ticket to the Assange event. Admission is 'prio press' as Ardin posts on Twitter. Wilén is professedly a photographer and gets a ticket. She lives outside Stockholm (in Enköping) but claims to be a national government employee.

√ 2010-08-13 (Friday). Ardin was to return to Stockholm first on Saturday 14 August but gets back early, already on Friday afternoon.

'He was there when I came home', Ardin tells the police. 'We talked a bit and agreed he could continue to stay there.'

Ardin and Assange go to a local eatery for dinner, then return to the flat and have sex. They use a condom but the condom is found to be broken afterwards.

√ 2010-08-14 (Saturday). Wilén attends the event arranged by Ardin, sits in the front row with her camera and takes pictures of Assange, hangs about afterwards, introduces herself to Assange, gets an invite to a lunch with the entourage at a 'bistro' a few blocks away, she and Assange see a short movie in a local cinema afterwards, then part.

Assange attends a crayfish party in Ardin's courtyard where two members of Sweden's Pirate Party (likely Falkvinge and Troberg) and are also present.

√ 2010-08-15 (Sunday). Assange, Falkvinge, and Troberg meet in the old town for a photo shoot concerning Sweden's Pirate Party offering server support to WikiLeaks.



Wilén rings Assange but his telephone is turned off. She starts telling her work colleagues about her meet with Assange.

'They told me he must feel like I dumped him, so the ball's in my court if I want see him again', Wilén tells the police.

√ 2010-08-16 (Monday). Wilén rings Assange again and this time he picks up. He tells her he's going to a meeting in the evening but should be able to connect with her about 20:30. Wilén wanders about in the city, eats some sushi, rings Assange back at 21:00 when he hasn't yet turned up. Assange picks up.

'He said he was in Hornsgatan and the meeting had just ended. He asked me to come and meet him, which I did.'

Wilén and Assange walk to the old town, sit down at Munkbron, talk a while, then take the train to her home in Enköping. Wilén pays for Assange's ticket (SEK107/$10).



Wilén and Assange have sex that evening with a condom. They have sex again in the following morning but without a condom. After sex in the morning, Wilén goes out and buys, then cooks breakfast - oatmeal and juice. They joke about her possibly being pregnant.

'I was being sarcastic to defuse the situation.'

Wilén and Assange ride together on her bike to the train station. Assange returns to Stockholm alone. Wilén asks Assange if he'll ring her. He says he will.



Assange is to meet Agneta Lindblom Hulthén of the Swedish journalists association at 12:00 noon but doesn't turn up until 16:00. One of his colleagues who'd been at the meeting the previous evening and who'd seen Wilén arrive at Hornsgatan starts looking for him. He tries to reach Wilén as he suspected they'd spent the night together. He rings Assange but Assange doesn't answer.

√ 2010-08-18 (Wednesday). Wilén calls Ardin and tells her she's had unprotected sex with Assange. She says she's upset he didn't use a condom and is afraid she might have contracted an STD or become pregnant. Ardin admits she too had had sex with Assange. Ardin rings an acquaintance of Assange's after the conversation with Wilén to convey the message to Assange that she wants him to move his things out of her flat.

√ 2010-08-19 (Thursday). Ardin sends an SMS message to the same acquaintance of Assange's, saying he still hadn't moved his things out.

√ 2010-08-20 (Friday). Assange moves his things out of Ardin's flat. He claims it's first on Friday he hears of her request.

Wilén and Ardin arrive at the Klara police station at 14:00. Wilén wants to file charges of rape; Ardin tags along to be of help.



They talk to a female police officer who concludes they're both victims of sex crimes and decides to interrogate them separately. Of Wilén the female police officer writes the following in the report.

'She said she'd been raped in her home on the morning of Tuesday 17 August by a man who had sex with her against her wishes.'

The female police officer ends her report with the following.

'Everyone I spoke to was in earnest agreement that this was a case of rape.'

Ardin, who only came along to help Wilén, tells the policewoman she also had sex with Ardin. She tells the policewoman the condom broke during sex and now accuses Assange of deliberately breaking it. The police conduct their interrogation of Ardin the following day on the phone.

The police send out a posse to Stureplan to visit upscale nightclubs in search of Assange. He is not to be found.

(Assange later tells friends about the broken condom but dismisses the idea it broke deliberately. He also insists he in no way raped the other woman either - it was consensual unprotected sex.)



(Niklas Svensson of Expressen gets wind of the story, races back to Stockkholm from Harpsund, he or someone else in his office rings up prosecutor on duty Maria Kjellstrand who corroborates the details, the charges, and the identities involved.)

√ 2010-08-21 (Saturday). Svensson's story hits Expressen online 05:00. A few hours later the other Swedish news sites have the story and soon it's all over the globe.

The police are tipped off that Assange is staying at a hotel in Stockholm but he's already checked out by the time they arrive.

Chief prosecutor Eva Finné decides to take over the case and has the files sent to her summer cottage by messenger. She reviews the documents and immediately rescinds the arrest warrant. She adds the following to her decision.

'If the suspect turns up then tell him he's suspected of molestation X 2.'

√ 2010-08-22 (Sunday). Karin Rosander is interviewed by Al Jazeera and somehow makes a mockery of herself and the country to a stupefied reporter and studio crew; Eva Finné is rumoured to be highly critical of the initial arrest warrant.



Wilén and Ardin contact Claes Borgström in the evening and he agrees to take the case.

√ 2010-08-23 (Monday). Assange retains Leif Silbersky as counsel and Silbersky immediately poses a rather obvious question.

'Why did the prosecutor corroborate all that confidential information for the media?'

The question is considered obvious because such behaviour is neither normal, acceptable, nor prudent - particularly when the arrest is 'in absentia'. Announcing such an arrest only gives the suspect a chance to flee.

The prosecutor's office refuse to this day to reply to Silbersky.

√ 2010-08-25 (Wednesday). A Google search for 'Assange rape' yields 1.2 million hits.

Finné clarifies that she doesn't mean she doesn't believe the women's stories, only that there is nothing criminal in them. Borgström, based on the same evidence, insists there is something criminal and that it was outright rape in both cases, and demands the case be reviewed by a prosecutor of yet higher rank.

Borgström is given an advance copy of the Aftonbladet article and replies with the following.

'I want to stress that there are significant details missing in this report, details I base my accusations of rape on, but I am prevented from revealing what these details are.'



Aftonbladet's reporters suggest to Borgström that it's in his clients' best interests to reveal the 'significant details'. Borgström replies with the following.

'It would hurt the investigation to make the information public at this stage. It's my opinion [Finné] was in error. I believe Assange will be accused of sex crimes.'

Aftonbladet's reporters tell Borgström they wonder how this can be if Ardin insists she's not been raped. Borgström replies with the following.

'[Ardin]'s not a jurist.'

√ 2010-08-30 (Monday). Assange meets with the police at 17:45. His solicitor Leif Silbersky is simultaneously involved in the 'helicopter robbery' case and can't make it earlier. Assange is told he is suspected of deliberately breaking a condom and denies this is so. He adds that he'll be staying in Sweden to fight the accusations and has no intention of fleeing the country.

Assange also demands guarantees details of the case will not again be leaked to the media - particularly Expressen.

√ 2010-08-31 (Tuesday). Details of the interview the police guaranteed wound not be leaked turn up in Expressen anyway.

Note: a Google search for 'Assange+rape' yields 4.38 million hits at time of writing.

See Also
Rixstep: Assange/WikiLeaks RSS Feed
Radsoft: Assange/WikiLeaks RSS Feed

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