The sexual assault case against Julian Assange took a surprising turn yesterday when it emerged that the Swedish police officer involved with the investigation is a friend of one of the accusers.
The female officer was on duty when the alleged offence was reported and she ran the interrogation that within hours led to an arrest warrant being issued for the WikiLeaks founder.
“If it is true, then it is highly inappropriate,” Mr Assange’s Swedish defence lawyer, Björn Hurtig, said. Mr Assange is appealing in Britain against an extradition order to stand trial on sexual assault charges.
It was never clear why the two women chose to go to the Klara police station in central Stockholm to make their allegations against Mr Assange. “There was no reasonable reason for them go to that very station”, Mr Hurtig said.
Now it has been reported in the Swedish media that the female police interrogator had just started her shift at the station when the two women appeared on the afternoon of August 20.
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The policewoman realised that her friend was one of the plaintiffs but was still the first to interrogate one of the women without reporting a conflict of interest.
Her questioning was influential when the prosecutor on duty decided to order the arrest of Mr Assange last year.
The two women got to know each other through the Swedish Social Democratic party. The policewoman has sat on the party’s gay-, bi- and transsexual board.
On her Facebook page she has published pictures of herself together with the former Minister of Justice, Thomas Bodström. Mr Bodström runs a Stockholm law firm with Claes Borgström, who is the accusers’ lawyer.
Last month the interrogator praised the women’s lawyer on Facebook. “Way to go, Claes Borgström!!!”, she wrote in a status update.
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The following day Sweden’s biggest newspaper allowed readers to chat with Mr Assange. The interrogator commented: “What the heck is this??? Judgement zero!!!”. In another status update last month she wrote about “the overrated Assange bubble ready to burst”.
Mr Assange’s Swedish lawyer said the new revelations further undermined the credibility of the process against his client. “The entire preliminary investigation must be disputed. I have heard these rumours before and if it is correct, the entire investigation may need to be restarted,” Mr Hurtig said.
The Stockholm Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Swedish police refused to comment.