Mr. Assange detained in his absence
www.aklagare.se: As a result of the court’s decision to detain Mr. Assange in his absence, an international arrest warrant will be issued.
(Swedish) Director of Prosecution, Ms. Marianne Ny, today requested the District Court of Stockholm to detain Mr Assange in his absence.
At the hearing on the detention issue, the District Court decided to detain Mr Assange in his absence, on probable cause suspected of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion. To execute the court’s decision, the next step is to issue an international arrest warrant.
On Thursday 18th November 2010, @wikileaks said:
Press release by counsel for Julian Assange
LONDON, 2pm Thursday November 18, 2010
Mark Stephens of law firm Finers Stephens Innocent said today, “On the morning of 21 August 2010, my client, Julian Assange, read in the 
Swedish tabloid newspaper Expressen that there was a warrant out for his arrest relating to allegations of “rape” involving two Swedish women.
However, even the substance of the allegations, as revealed to the press through unauthorized disclosures do not constitute what any advanced legal system considers to be rape; as various media outlets have reported “the basis for the rape charge” purely seems to constitute a post-facto dispute over consensual, but unprotected sex days after the event. Both women have declared that they had consensual sexual relations with our client and that they continued to instigate friendly contact well after the alleged incidents. Only after the women became aware of each other’s relationships with Mr. Assange did they make their allegations against him.
The warrant for his arrest was rightly withdrawn within 24 hours by Chief prosecutor Eva Finne, who found that there was no “reason to suspect that he has committed rape.” Yet his name had already been deliberately and unlawfully disclosed to the press by Swedish authorities. The so called “rape” story was carried around the world and has caused Mr. Assange and his organization irreparable harm.
Eva Finne’s decision to drop the “rape” investigation was reversed after the intervention of a political figure, Claes Borgstrom, who is now acting for the women. The case was given to a specific prosecutor, Marianne Ny.
The only way the accused and his lawyers have been able to discover any substantive information regarding the investigation against him has been through the media. Over the last three months, despite numerous demands, neither Mr. Assange, nor his legal counsel has received a single word in writing from the Swedish authorities relating to the allegations; a clear contravention to Article 6 of the European Convention, which states that every accused must 澱e informed promptly, in a language which he understands and in detail, of the nature and cause of the accusation against him”. The actions by the Swedish authorities constitute a blatant and deliberate disregard for his rights under the Convention.
We are now concerned that prosecutor Marianne Ny intends to apply for an arrest warrant in an effort to have Mr. Assange forcibly taken to Sweden for preliminary questioning. Despite his right to silence, my client has repeatedly offered to be interviewed, first in Sweden before he left, and then subsequently in the UK (including at the Swedish Embassy), either in person or by telephone, videoconferencing or email and he has also offered to make a sworn statement on affidavit. All of these offers have been flatly refused by a prosecutor who is abusing her powers by insisting that he return to Sweden at his own expense to be subjected to another media circus that she will orchestrate. Pursuing a warrant in this circumstance is entirely unnecessary and disproportionate. This action is in contravention both of European Conventions and makes a mockery of arrangements between Sweden and the United Kingdom designed to deal with just such situations. This behavior is not a prosecution, but a persecution. Before leaving Sweden Mr. Assange asked to be interviewed by the prosecution on several occasions in relation to the allegations, staying over a month in Stockholm, at considerable expense and despite many engagements elsewhere, in order to clear his name. Eventually the prosecution told his Swedish lawyer Bjorn Hurtig that he was free to leave the country, without interview, which he did.
Our client has always maintained his innocence. The allegations against him are false and without basis. As a result of these false allegations and bizarre legal interpretations our client now has his name and reputation besmirched. Thousands of news articles and 3.6million web pages now contain his name and the word “rape”. Indeed, three out of four web-pages that mention Mr. Assange’s name also now mention the word “rape”—a direct result of incompetent and malicious behavior by Swedish government prosecutors. My client is now in the extraordinary position that, despite his innocence, and despite never having been charged, and despite never receiving a single piece of paper about the allegations against him, one in ten Internet references to the word “rape” also include his name. Every day that this flawed investigation continues the damages to his reputation are compounded.”
-ENDS-
Charon QC 
Of course there are so many facets to this case that it could go on for ever, the Pentagon, the CIA, European arrest warrants, secret military documents, an ego somewhere the size of Jupiter mixed in with the amazingly politicised sexual landscape to be found in Sweden. All we need is to find is that Mossad, Putin or 9/11 are associated with this and the conspiracy theorist’s cup will runneth over.
A few things occur to me. Firstly there was the public prosecutor, who was one of our small group on a walking trip in Ethiopia a few years back. He was from the Midlands, and part of the team that, slightly more than a decade ago, brought a Midland taxi driver to justice in a very well publicised rape case. However, what he said was that absolutely the worst type of case he ever dealt with were rape cases where there had been consensual sex at some time. There were an awful lot of what might be called withdrawal of consent in retrospect claims or of non-consensual between consensual sex episodes, if that makes sense. In all, he said a nightmare to prosecute, and more often than not filled with apparently contradictory an irrational behaviour. Such, I guess, is the nature of people. Of course rape is one of those few criminal offence where the act itself isn’t evidence of a crime, but it’s solely the context. The same is not generally true of robberies, murders, assaults, break-ins and so on.
The other thing that occurs to me about the absence of consent in retrospect (which seems to be the claim here), is the debate that surfaces from time-to-time about the validity of consent in a state of intoxication (by which I don’t mean to the point of unconsciousness). I seem to recall there was a rather clumsy attempt to change the law in this respect a few years back, but it seemed to me to be wholly ineffectual and ripe for miscarriages of justice. There are other absence of consent in retrospect issues which become real cases. There was recently the the Israeli Arab who was found guilty of “rape by deception” (does that exist in the UK) on the basis that he slept with a Jewish woman who was lead to think he was of the same faith.
Now I’m not quite sure whether this is a “rape by deception” case, but it sounds horribly complicated. However, what I certainly would not want to do is get mixed up with the miasma of Swedish sexual politics (not that it’s in any way likely). Sweden has, of course, fairly recently made prostitution illegal, but for the client.
Anyway, it occurs to me that if every person who was less than honest about himself in order to sleep with a girl was to be prosecuted it would keep the courts fairly busy.
I’m sure this is not the last of this that we will hear.