Julian Assange, the founder of the Wikileaks website, was at the centre of an extraordinary "dirty tricks" row today after the Swedish government issued and then withdrew an arrest warrant against him for rape.Is it convenient, given the ire he's raised in the US government?
Hell, yes! But that doesn't mean it has to be a conspiracy...
After all, it's not as though there's a shortage of women out there who are perfectly happy to accuse a successful man of awful things entirely off their own bat and for their own twisted reasons, is there?
What it does mean, as Jack of Kent and Al Jahom point out, is that the case for anonymity for rape suspects just got that little bit more urgent.
And Angry Exile points out that the Swedes take a very dim view indeed of false rape claims. Our prosecution authority should take note of that too.
One madness follows another in our legal system. 'Credibility' is at the heart of it, a word that seems to do with waving the wand of a courtroom over gossip.
ReplyDeleteAm I alone in appreciating the exquisite irony of this affair?
ReplyDeleteNo, Brian!
ReplyDeleteNo certainty at all. I'm not claiming the smell of fish necessarily means we're knee deep in herring. We might be, we might not be, or they might only be red ones. But it's fishy all the same.
ReplyDeleteIsw not a warrent for murder or rape and such a convenient way of ensuring arrest everywhere.
ReplyDeleteAnd after this the real charge can be arranged before the arrestee can disapear or get help.
"'Credibility' is at the heart of it, a word that seems to do with waving the wand of a courtroom over gossip."
ReplyDeleteIndeed. It's notable that in a few of the UK cases so far, the accuser has form. And yet is still taken at her word.
Would that happen with any other criminal? Are our police too familiar with the story of the boy who cried wolf?
"Am I alone in appreciating the exquisite irony of this affair?"
As Oldrightie says, you certainly are not! ;)
"But it's fishy all the same."
It's very, very convenient, isn't it?
"And after this the real charge can be arranged before the arrestee can disapear or get help."
They are considered to be the most heinous things in most cultures...