A few months after famous feminist Naomi Wolf and other leftist journalists dismissed the sexual assault charges against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange as frivolous , British courts are taking the matter quite seriously: They ruled Thursday that Assange should be extradited to Sweden to face accusations of abuse , according to the New York Times . To recap the story, two Swedish women say that they had sexual encounters with Assange that began as consensual, but turned sinister. Our Amanda Marcotte explains the allegations, as revealed in a Guardian article, here :
One of the women alleges that Assange behaved threateningly with her and held her down to prevent her from reaching for a condom. He did end up wearing one, but she thinks he ripped it and deliberately ejaculated inside her. He also later rubbed up against her with his pants off, she says, against her will. The other alleged victim claims that she struggled with Assange over the condom all night, had consensual sex with him when he finally put it on, and then woke up later in the night to find Assange having sex with her, without her consent and without a condom.
The Swedish warrant requires Assange to return to Sweden for questioning. For his part, Assange calls these accusations lies, and according to the Times he refers to Sweden as “the Saudi Arabia of feminism.” His lawyers have a week to appeal the ruling, and they plan to do so. If convicted of the allegations in Sweden, Assange faces a maximum of four years in jail. Hopefully now that a court is taking these women’s stories seriously, Wolf and company will have to eat their condescending words.
Photograph of Julian Assange by
Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images.
