E-Paper
Accusers may be victims in successful smear, says Assange
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange claimed Tuesday that the sexual offences allegations against him in Sweden were a "very successful smear" - and he would not receive "natural justice" if he was extradited from Britain.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange claimed Tuesday that the sexual offences allegations against him in Sweden were a "very successful smear" - and he would not receive "natural justice" if he was extradited from Britain.
He suggested that the two women who made the allegations against him in Sweden were themselves "maybe victims" in the process of smearing him and his organisation, WikiLeaks.
Assange, 39, was speaking to BBC at the mansion in East Anglia, where he is virtually kept under house arrest, pending the extradition proceedings.
He said he felt "emasculated" by the electronic tag he has to wear under bail conditions. Assange, freed on bail by a British court on Friday, is subject to a curfew and has to report to the police every day.
He said the two women who have accused him of sexual assault had got into a "tizzy".
He said "one description" of what had occurred in Sweden was that, after having discovered they had each been sexually involved with him, the women had got into a "tizzy" about the possibility of sexually transmitted diseases.
They had gone to the police for advice "and then the police jumped in on this and bamboozled the women", he alleged.
