Paper spells out Assange sex claims

LONDON - Fresh details from the statements made to police by two Swedish women who have made sexual allegations against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange have been published by the Guardian, his principal British media partner and supporter.

The story says the new material offers "a detailed account of a number of disputed incidents involving the women that appear, at least, to warrant investigation".

It also claims the reason Swedish authorities applied for an international arrest warrant was that Assange did not come back to the country for a scheduled meeting with prosecutors.

The police statements deal with what the women say happened when Assange visited Sweden to speak at a conference in August. Accuser 1, who was involved with the host organisation, offered him her vacant apartment. They had sex, which is not disputed.

The Guardian says she claims that "he began stroking her leg as they drank tea, before he pulled off her clothes and snapped a necklace she was wearing".

She, uneasy at the speed of developments, put on some more garments, but that "Assange ripped them off again". She then let him undress her, and, as he attempted to have unprotected sex with her, she tried several times to get out a condom. The Guardian reports, "Assange had stopped her by holding her arms and pinning her legs". It was said he freed his grip, put on a condom, but that, in her words, he had "done something" to it so that it ripped. He denies doing so.

The next day he went to the cinema with Accuser 2. According to the new information, they sat in the back row and, says the Guardian, "he put his hands inside her clothing". That evening, at a party, Accuser 1 told a friend about her encounter with Assange. "Not only had it been the world's worst screw, it had also been violent."

Two days later, Accuser 2 rang him, they met, went back to her flat and began to have sex. She stopped this, as he was not using a condom. They had sex in the night when, she claims, he "unwillingly" agreed to a condom; and then, in the morning, she woke to him having sex with her without a condom. She had never had unprotected sex before and was perturbed by this, even more so when Assange declined to undergo an HIV test.

She had a test, and, in her efforts to contact Assange, who was proving elusive, rang Accuser 1. They compared notes, then went to the police, asking if Assange could be forced to have a test. He later agreed to one, but by then clinics had closed for the weekend. Police thought the women's stories meant possible offences had been committed (it can be illegal in Sweden to have sex without a condom when one partner has insisted upon it), and the ball was set in motion that led to his extradition case.

Assange denies any wrongdoing. Nor has he presented his side of these events. Should the case ever come to court, it would be a matter of one person's word against another's.

* Leaked diplomatic cables suggested yesterday that the then head of the United Nations Kofi Annan offered Robert Mugabe a lucrative retirement package in an overseas haven if he stood down as Zimbabwe's President.

The memo, released by the WikiLeaks website and written by American officials in September 2000, records a meeting between a US Embassy official in Harare and a senior source in the Opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

According to the MDC source, "Kofi Annan, in the recent meeting in New York during the millennium summit offered Mugabe a deal to step down. Although [the MDC source] said the MDC was not privy to the details, he surmised that Annan's supposed deal probably included provision of safe haven and a financial package from Libyan President [Muammar] Gaddafi. The opposition party heard that Mugabe turned down the offer the following day after discussing it with the first lady."

- Observer, Independent