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Comment by bl4k | Hacker News Reader

It is a smear campaign, so they don't have to wait for a guilty or innocent verdict - the charges alone are doing enough damage.

I like the old wikileaks, before Julian starting getting his face on the news as being the spokesperson. Wikileaks is now editorialized, which makes it easy for the right to write it off as part of the liberal media. It all started with the 'collateral murder' video (the chosen title says a lot).

They should let the documents speak for themselves, and leave wikileaks to be the online de facto venue for such documents.

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If, hypothetically, a rape had actually occurred (which we can't speak to at this time), could a genuine prosecution occur without accusations of a smear campaign? What if he really is a rapist? If that were the case, should he not be prosecuted because of the work he does with Wikileaks?

But I agree that Wikileaks has been editorializing too much. I liked it when they were acting as journalists, not activists.

Actually I didn't word what I wrote correctly, what I meant to say is that no matter what happens, some will see it as a smear campaign.

Sweden is country advanced enough that you would assume that they don't just charge people with rape without there being some evidence to support the charge. We can also assume that the legal system in that country is stable enough to grant Julian a fair trial and judge him based on the evidence.

To date his only defense has been that this is a deliberate attempt by unnamed powers-that-be to smear his name because of his role at wikileaks. I can't recall him directly addressing the allegations (a good lawyer would advise him to save it for the courtroom).

It is an interesting case because of who he is - it will also be interesting if he mounts a 'this is a false allegation because of who I am' defense in court.

> it will also be interesting if he mounts a 'this is a false allegation because of who I am' defense in court.

It will be very short in that case.

The thing that makes this look like a smear job is the fact that it's two women that know each other at a very convenient time combined with the fact that Assange had already gone public before the alleged rape had happened with the warning that 'dirty tricks' were in their future.

It all seems a bit too convenient. The way the Swedish authorities went about the case to date also doesn't smell like roses.

Time will tell. As for the Swedish legal system being pure, I recall that not that long ago there was a ruling in the Pirate Bay case that a judge that had substantial ties with the recording industry was deemed impartial enough to judge their case.

Sweden is country advanced enough that you would assume that they don't just charge people with rape without there being some evidence to support the charge.

Is this really necessary? You're now actively participating in the smear campaign.

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