UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer on Julian Assange

In this interview, Nils Melzer, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, talks about the Swedish rape allegation. According to his account, the Swedish police literally made up the rape allegations. Daniel Ryser et al, «A murderous system is being created before our very eyes» Republik (Switzerland) 02/31/2020. (See also: Wie die schwedischen Behörden die Vergewaltigungsanzeige gegen Julian Assange fälschten Standard 17.02.2020.

He isn‘t questioning the credibility of the complainant. He says the records show she didn‘t report a rape at all.

Melzer explains that he declined an initial request from Assange's lawyers to review his situation. But after another request last year, he accepted the undertaking:

It quickly became clear to me that something was wrong. That there was a contradiction that made no sense to me with my extensive legal experience: Why would a person be subject to nine years of a preliminary investigation for rape without charges ever having been filed? ...

Allow me to start at the beginning. I speak fluent Swedish and was thus able to read all of the original documents. I could hardly believe my eyes: According to the testimony of the woman in question, a rape had never even taken place at all. And not only that: The woman’s testimony was later changed by the Stockholm police without her involvement in order to somehow make it sound like a possible rape. I have all the documents in my possession, the emails, the text messages. ...

On Aug. 20, 2010, a woman named S. W. entered a Stockholm police station together with a second woman named A. A. The first woman, S. W. said she had had consensual sex with Julian Assange, but he had not been wearing a condom. She said she was now concerned that she could be infected with HIV and wanted to know if she could force Assange to take an HIV test. She said she was really worried. The police wrote down her statement and immediately informed public prosecutors. ...

S.W. never accused Julian Assange of rape. She declined to participate in further questioning and went home. Nevertheless, two hours later, a headline appeared on the front page of Expressen, a Swedish tabloid, saying that Julian Assange was suspected of having committed two rapes.

Assange may have been a bad actor in the DNC leaks in 2016. But the government was particularly concerned about Wikileaks' earlier reporting of US war crimes. The immediate reason for his taking asylum in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London was the threat of being extradited to Sweden on the allegations that Melzer discusses. Assange feared that Sweden would immediately extradite him to the US.

Now that he's in custody in the US, he deserves a fair trial. He certainly shouldn't be tortured while he's awaiting trial.

Also, the US should refrain from committing war crimes.

From the various reports on him, Assange doesn't seem to be a very pleasant guy. He's not the first journalist to have that reputation. And his politics seem to be some kind of quirky rightwing libertarianism.

But none of that should have any bearing on his legal treatment in the US or in Sweden.