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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/assange-accuser-stops-cooperating-police/
One of the two Swedish women who have filed sex complaints against the founder
of WikiLeaks has reportedly left Sweden and may no longer be cooperating with
the criminal investigation.
According to a report at Australian news site Crikey.com, Anna Ardin has moved
to the Palestinian territories to volunteer with a Christian group working to
reconcile Arabs and Israelis.
Crikey.com reports: "One source from Ardin’s old university of Uppsala
reported rumors that she had stopped co-operating with the prosecution service
several weeks ago, and that this was part of the reason for the long delay in
proceeding with charges -- and what still appears to be an absence of charges."
Ardin's blog shows that she has recently posted from the Palestinian
territories. Her most recent blog posts make no mention of WikiLeaks or its
founder, Julian Assange.
Some of Ardin's most recent Tweets suggest sympathy for WikiLeaks.
"MasterCard, Visa, and PayPal -- belt them now!" Ardin urged in a Tweet
Wednesday, evidently referring to the cyber-attacks launched on those
institutions after they severed their relationships with WikiLeaks.
In a more recent Tweet, she complained of the media reports digging into her
background.
"CIA agent, rabid feminist / Muslim lover, a Christian fundamentalist, flat &
fatally in love with a man, can you even be all [these things all] the time?"
she Tweeted in Swedish.
Some news reports have linked Ardin to the CIA, based on her contact with
anti-Castro groups in Cuba. Ardin wrote her master's thesis on these groups,
while located in Havana and Miami. But others have questioned the validity of
the connection.
Crikey.com notes that Ardin, an avowed feminist, has taken criticism from many
prominent feminists, who, perhaps surprisingly, appear to have sided against
the female accuser and with the male accused.
"Rape is being used in the Assange prosecution in the same way that women’s
freedom was used to invade Afghanistan. Wake up!" Tweeted Naomi Klein.
Feminist activist Naomi Wolf penned an article sarcastically congratulating
Interpol for its "commitment to engaging in global manhunts to arrest and
prosecute men who behave like narcissistic jerks to women they are dating."
SWEDEN WITHHOLDING DOCUMENTATION ON ASSANGE PROBE
Assange's lawyer, renowned British advocate Mark Stephens, told CBS News
Thursday that prosecutor Marianne Ny is staging a "show trial,"
in reference to the politically motivated prosecutions of the Stalin-era Soviet
Union.
Stephens said not only have formal charges not been filed against Assange, but
the prosecution has failed to provide him with any documentation relating to
the investigation. As a result, he says it's impossible for him to begin
crafting a defense.
Stephens also said he believed recent news reports that Sweden is holding talks
with the United States on whether Assange can be extradited to face charges
under U.S. law.
It's unclear what U.S. laws Assange could have broken with his release of U.S.
State Department cables, as he is not a U.S. citizen and therefore not bound by
U.S. treason laws, and his activites with WikiLeaks were carried out outside
the U.S.
2.
ASSANGE ACCUSER MAY HAVE CEASED CO-OPERATING By Guy Rundle
Crikey (Australia)
December 9, 2010
http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/12/09/rundle-r-pe-case-complainant-has-left-sweden-may-have-ceased-co-operating/
Anna Ardin, one of the two complainants in the rape and sexual assault case
against WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange, has left Sweden, and may have
ceased actively co-operating with the Swedish prosecution service and her own
lawyer, sources in Sweden told Crikey today.
The move comes amid a growing campaign by leading Western feminists to question
the investigation, and renewed confusion as to whether Sweden has actually
issued charges against Assange. Naomi Klein, Naomi Wolf, and the European
group Women Against Rape, have all made statements questioning the nature and
purpose of the prosecution.
Ardin, who also goes by the name Bernardin, has moved to the West Bank in the
Palestinian Territories, as part of a Christian outreach group, aimed at
bringing reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis.
She has moved to the small town of Yanoun, which sits close to Israel’s
security/sequestration wall. Yanoun is constantly besieged by fundamentalist
Jewish settlers, and international groups have frequently stationed themselves
there.
Attempts by Crikey to contact Ardin by phone, fax, email, and twitter were
unsuccessful today.
Ardin’s blog has restarted a
