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Assange in Sweden: Not Rape in Her SleepFive years for this?
MALMÖ (Rixstep) — A Swedish court of appeal may have inadvertently put the final nail in Marianne Ny's legal coffin. The Court of Appeal for Scania and Blekinge today upheld a district court acquittal of a man accused of rape.
The following account comes from both Aftonbladet and SvD, today owned by the same company, Schibsted. The reports are identical, right down to the same single typo.
http://www.aftonbladet.se/senastenytt/ttnyheter/inrikes/article20456487.ab
http://www.svd.se/nyheter/inrikes/hovratten-inte-valdtakt-i-somnen_4402911.svd
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is into his fifth year of pre-trial detention, all down to a five second interlude with one Sofia Wilén, where she supposedly was half-asleep/half-awake before the pair again began what they both describe as 'consensual sex'.
Court of Appeal: Not Rape in Her Sleep
Thursday 12 March 2015
According to the woman, the 48 year old man undressed her and subjected her to sexual violations whilst she slept; the man admits undressing his younger coworker and having had sex with her, but he insists she must have been awake. A split district court held that he could not be disproved, and therefore acquitted the 48-year-old - and now the Appeal Court for Scania and Blekinge upheld the earlier district court verdict.
A sleep researcher, who gave testimony in the district court trial in Lund, had determined that it was 'highly unlikely' that a sober and healthy person in the early stages of sleep would have slept through what had happened. According to the court, it was neither 'beyond a reasonable doubt' that the woman was really asleep, or demonstrated that the man had so understood, nor had reason to suspect she was asleep. The court of appeal concurred and upheld the previous acquittal.
See Also
SvD: Hovrätten: Inte våldtäkt i sömnen
Aftonbladet: Hovrätten: Inte våldtäkt i sömnen
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