‘I was targeted after I made Assange sex crime claim’ says accuser of Wikileaks founder

Swedish woman tells of her ordeal after making allegations against WikiLeaks founder

Assange appearing on the embassy's balcony in August (AFP/Getty Images)

One of the Swedish women who accused Wikileaks founder Julian Assange of sex crimes has spoken out about the ordeal she said she suffered at the hands of her alleged abuser’s mother and other supporters.

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.”

It is believed to be the first time the woman has spoken about her experience at the hands of her alleged abuser’s supporters.

In the blogpost, she did not name the man she said attacked her. But the date she gave for the incident coincides with the time she alleged Mr Assange assaulted her. The name of the blog’s author also matches that of a woman widely identified as one of the complainants in Assange case.

And her claims of attacks by supporters of her abuser match the experiences of the women who accuse Julian Assange of crimes defined as sexual assault and rape in Swedish law.

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”.

But she added that, after a period of time, people belatedly began to stand up for her. And she wondered what would have happened without that support, adding: “Perhaps someone would actually have carried out some of the threats I received. Perhaps I would have had to change names and move away.

“And probably I would have been regarded as someone you lose elections and customers through, which would have made it impossible for me to both get involved and work beyond the few months when I did go underground.”

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.

Mr Assange’s mother Christine Assange has also launched attacks on those who have opposed her son for his refusal to go to Sweden. In January, she referred to protests against Assange’s scheduled videolink appearance at Oxford University as a “witchunt” [sic]. Writing on Twitter, she called them “rabid irrational frenzied ‘feminists’.”

In March this year, The Independent exclusively revealed that representatives of the Ecuadorean government held secret talks with the Labour Party in a bid to strike a deal which would see Mr Assange sent to Sweden after the next general election. Diplomats hoped that, should Labour form the next government, they would agree to allay Mr Assange’s fears of onward extradition to America, thereby making it more likely he would agree to face the Swedish prosecutor.

Neither Julian, nor Christine Assange responded to requests for comment on Sunday.