Assange’s ‘victory’ is a blow for all rape victims

AS THE Julian Assange circus gathers pace, spare a thought for the young woman whose accusations of rape against the WikiLeaks founder have been all but forgotten. Forty-five year-old Assange, right, has always denied the allegations and it’s typically self-serving of him to hail the decision of the Swedish prosecutors to drop the case as a personal vindication.

But the case was not dropped because Assange has no questions to answer; rather, it was dropped because of a lack of progress on the prosecutor’s side and the impossibility of him ever presenting in a Swedish court.

The woman in the middle of this torrid saga is shocked naturally at the development, her lawyer saying that ‘no decision to shut the case down can get her to change her position that Assange raped her’.

Assange’s defiance, his extraordinary reputation as a thorn in the side of US hegemony, meant that this was no ordinary rape case – if indeed such a thing exists.

But what has now transpired will hardly improve confidence in the Swedish legal system regarding sex crimes. The country is often called the rape capital of Europe, with high levels of reported rape and a very low conviction rate.

The scandal of a high-profile suspected rapist like Assange escaping justice may make women even more reluctant to go to the authorities.