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Adams, being Adams, wrote most of that tongue in cheek though.

I'm Swedish too, and I think there is a core of truth to what he's saying.

The joke about how you're half a rapist just for having a penis and a fully qualified one if the condom breaks — not true of course, it was just a joke, ha-ha.

But, actually, we do have a pretty liberal definition of rape these days, not that liberal, but still. Rape used to have to contain some element of violence or threat of violence, these days rape doesn't have to contain either. As Assange's accusors have conceded, it was consensual sex.

The feminist movement in Sweden is trying, has been for years, to expand the word "rape" to include less aggrievous stuff. This seems to be another attempt at expanding the definition of "rape" into meaning that the offender didn't "honor the agreement" of the "sexual relation". As if they had arrived at an agreement before they had sex.

I don't think they will win this case though. I expect Assange to be freed of all charges. Possibly a minor charge of non-sexual harassment, or something.

> I expect Assange to be freed of all charges.

If that's the common expectation then why this all out effort to bring him to justice ? I've looked at the interpol site, it's not exactly crawling with Swedish requests to bring sex offenders to justice, the only other guy on there is a Swedish national that has some other ominous wording next to his 'sex offenses' relating to children.

Just because one prosecutor sees this as her big break doesn't mean the entire justice system is flawed.

I'm not sure that's the common one. It's just mine.

And I do agree with you that this case is anything but usual, numerous things about it strikes me as odd and weirdly coincidental.

Ardin didn't actually write the article about revenge; it's from eHow. She just translated it into Swedish.

Reuters claims all Ardin and the other accuser really wanted was to get Assange to take an STD test.

I think Assange's concern was not that he'd be convicted, but that once he's in police custody, he could be extradited to the US or murdered more easily.

Which is funny in a morbid way, because I think he's actually a lot safer from a possible hit in a UK prison than outside of one. The last place where you could get away with something like that un-noticed is inside a prison.

And I doubt even the US would be stupid enough to try something like that even though there are enough politicians baying for blood.

I wished they were as assertive about bringing people to trial when it comes to the Guantanamo inmates.

It wouldn't have to be the US or even the UK. Assange has angered a lot of different governments, not to mention private citizens.

People die in London police custody at about the rate of one every month, if I remember correctly. It's not really such an unusual occurrence. Without knowing much about the UK, I doubt that the police officers who kill those captives usually get indicted for murder.

People dying whilst in custody is something considerably different than people being murdered in custody.

What you say doesn't fit what I've read from primary news accounts (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1986192) nor from other swedes (http://www.jumbled-words.com/?p=6909).

For now it's not the Swedes calling the shots but one particular prosecutor, who very explicitly left the door open to extraditing him to the US (as in definitely not ruling it out).

Is it customary that the Swedish authorities would involve Interpol in a case like this ?

> Is it customary that the Swedish authorities would involve Interpol in a case like this ?

You can check for yourself: http://www.interpol.int/Public/Wanted/Search/ResultListNew.a...

Ok, so one other, a Swedish national that is also accused of crimes 'against children' as well as 'sex crimes'.

A couple of months ago a Swedish newspaper ran a story describing a case of assault, taking place on a ferry from Sweden to Finland[1]. Freely translated with a bit of help from google:

The film shows how the two men drops Christer with punches. Then one of them stomped him five times to the head with full force. The men then disappear into their cabin. After 30 seconds, one of them returns and kicks the unconscious Christer twice in the face. [...] But since the crime took place in Swedish waters, and none of the people involved are Finnish citizens, they were released and returned to Ireland. [...] In Sweden, the matter was taken over by prosecutor Thomas Holst. Despite the surveillance film, and the the two perpetrators being identified, he decided to drop the investigation. - "The people can't be contacted", he says.

But they are known and available in Ireland? - "If we were to try to bring home all the people who committed crimes not serious enough, we would get very busy."

He doesn't see asking them to be extradited as a realistic option. - "We only do that kind of thing when it's serious crimes - like murder."

[1] http://aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article8031457.ab

> There is, however, no way that Assange will be convicted for any of the charges he is facing.

Are you sure about that? There was also no way the tpb guys would get jail, it's getting darker now.

> So, from Sweden, just want to say that we're sorry that a couple of idiots have managed to create all this fuss.

I'd say us Americans should understand that perfectly