MP defends Assange on rape claims
A RESPECTED British MP has outraged anti-rape campaigners by claiming allegations of Julian Assange having inappropriate sex with a woman while she was asleep is not rape.
George Galloway is no stranger to controversy but the MP has been accused of having a ‘‘deeply disturbing’’ view on sexual violence after he made a podcast of his views.
In the extraordinary online broadcast, Galloway spoke about the claims being made against Assange.
Those claims are that he sexually molested, raped and unlawfully coerced two women in 2010; the claims are the basis for the British courts granting his extradition to Sweden that have since been thwarted by Ecuador offering him political asylum. Assange has claimed the allegations were false and were a ruse to extradite him to the US to face charges related to the 2010 Wikileaks revelations – a claim Galloway supports.
‘‘Even taken at its worst, if the allegations made by these two women were true, 100 per cent true, and even if a camera in the room captured them, they don’t constitute rape,’’ he said. ‘‘At least not rape as anyone with any sense can possibly recognise it. And somebody has to say this. Woman A met Julian Assange, invited him back to her flat, gave him dinner, went to bed with him, had consensual sex with him, claims that she woke up to him having sex with her again.
‘‘This is something which can happen, you know. I mean, not everybody needs to be asked prior to each insertion,’’ he said.