Victim Shaming on behalf of Julian Assange

[BainsBane]

As we well know, there are many DUers who are intent on shielding Assange from prosecution for sexual assault. They willfully distort the legal record to deceive readers, and possibly themselves, that Assange is not actually facing prosecution in Sweden, when the facts show otherwise. See, for example, this legal ruling from the UK Supreme Court, in response to Assange's appeal to overturn his order of extradition. It lays out the investigation into the allegations of sexual assault and Assange's legal standing in Sweden: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKSC/2012/22.html

The two women who went to police to report their sexual assaults have been widely shamed, just as has happened to the many young high school girls gang raped in recent years. Social media is a powerful weapon for rape apologists and victim shamers. Cha posted this piece in a thread in GD, and I thought it useful to repost here. I'm not sure if we've had this in HOF before, but even so I think it relevant now because of recent discussions in GD.

To be clear, I am not accusing any DUers of being part of this behavior.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said that she became a target for both her former allies and opponents who, along with her alleged abuser’s acolytes, turned against her and presumed she was lying about the allegations she made.

“Three years ago I was the victim of an assault. Former allies, political opponents, the Sweden Democrats, anti-feminists, Jew-haters, the man’s friends and mother quickly decided that there was something fishy. That I lied,” she wrote on her blog.

The woman added: “The perpetrator was innocent. One remarkable story after another lined up in a giant court of public opinion with anonymous judges and witnesses who guessed wildly.” . . .

She wrote that, after the alleged assault, everything “that I, or someone who could be assumed to be close to me, had said that could be turned to my disadvantage was raised as evidence of my guilt, my crime and my being incapable of telling the truth. Everything I had said that was to my advantage in that context was deemed invalidated, or was met with silence”. . . .

Numerous articles have appeared online speculating both about the veracity of the women’s claims, and the some have claimed agenda lies behind them. And some of the Assange supporters who have turned up to the west London embassy building for his public appearances have been known to bring placards denigrating the Wikileaks founder’s accusers.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/i-was-targeted-after-i-made-assange-sex-crime-claim-says-accuser-of-wikileaks-founder-8613006.html