जूलियन असांजे लन्दन में गिरफ्तार किये गए और अब काफी हो-हल्ला के बाद कोर्ट द्वारा जमानत पर रिहा किये जा चुके हैं. लेकिन शायद अभी भी हम में से बहुत लोग यह नहीं जानते कि असांजे के खिलाफ अपराध कैसे कायम हुआ. दस्तावेजों के अनुसार दरअसल यह कहानी शुरू हुई 11 अगस्त 2010 को जब असांजे स्वीडन की राजधानी स्टॉकहोम पहुंचे थे.
वहाँ वे एक रेडिकल फेमिनिस्ट महिला (जिन्हें स्वीडिश अधिकारियों ने असली नाम नहीं बता कर मिस ए बताया है, जैसा हमारे देश में भी बलात्कार की शिकार महिला का असली नाम नहीं बताने का नियम है), जिनसे उनकी पहले कोई मुलाक़ात नहीं थी, के घर पर रुके. सब ठीक चला और 14 अगस्त को वे दोनों डिनर पर गए. फिर वहाँ से लौट कर आये और रजामंदी से उनके बीच सहवास हुआ. अब हुआ यह कि संभवतः दुर्भाग्यवश सेक्स के दौरान असांजे का कंडोम फट गया. मिस ए की शिकायत के मुताबिक़ एक तो असांजे ने उस कंडोम के फटने के बाद भी सेक्स का उपक्रम जारी रखा और दूसरे अपने वजन का इस्तेमाल करते हुए उन्हें सेक्स के दौरान प्रताडि़त भी किया.
फिर कहानी आई एक दूसरी महिला की, जिसे स्वीडन के अधिकारी कागजों पर मिस डब्ल्यू कह रहे हैं. अगले दिन, 15 अगस्त को असांजे इस महिला के साथ लंच पर गए. वहाँ से वे लोग सिनेमा देखने गए और वहीं वे दोनों ‘नजदीक’ आ गए. दोनों ने ट्रेन पकड़ा और उस महिला के घर आ गए. वहाँ उन दोनों में अंतरंग सम्बन्ध स्थापित हुए और इस दौरान भी असांजे ने कंडोम का इस्तेमाल किया था. फिर अपराध कहाँ हुआ. दरअसल, अपराध हुआ अगली सुबह जब जागने के बाद असांज ने बिना किसी सुरक्षा के मिस डब्ल्यू के साथ सहवास किया.
18 अगस्त को मिस ए ने स्वीडिश अधिकारियों के सामने असांजे के ऊपर ‘जानबूझ कर छेड़खानी’ (डेलीबेरेटेली मोलेस्ट) का आरोप लगाया. उन्होंने यह आरोप लगाया कि असांजे ने उनके साथ इस प्रकार सेक्स किया कि उनकी सेक्सुअल इंटेग्रिटी से खिलवाड़ हुआ. उन्होंने एक माध्यम से असांजे को अपना घर छोड़ देने को कहा और असांजे 20 अगस्त को उनका घर छोड़ के चले गए. दोनों महिलाएं स्टॉकहोम पुलिस के पास गयीं और उनकी शिकायत की. वे चाहती थीं कि असांजे का एचआईवी टेस्ट किया जाए.
दस्तावेजों के मुताबिक़ पुलिस अधिकारी ने यह निष्कर्ष निकाला कि असांजे ने मिस डब्ल्यू का रेप किया और मिस ए को सेक्सुअली मोलेस्ट किया. अभियोजन अटॉर्नी ने असांजे पर रेप का चार्ज लगाने की बात रखी पर चीफ प्रोजेक्यूटर ने रेप के आरोप को यह कहते हुए खारिज कर दिया कि यह मामूली अपराध है.
लेकिन कुछ दिनों बाद इस मामले में एक स्पेशल प्रोजेक्यूटर नियुक्त हुए और उसके बाद की बात तो हम सभी जानते हैं. स्वीडन के कानून के मुताबिक़ यदि कोई व्यक्ति किसी महिला से सहमति के अनुसार सहवास कर रहा हो किन्तु उस महिला ने जब मना कर दिया, उसके बाद भी सेक्स करता रहे तो उसे ‘सेक्स बाई सरप्राइज़’ कहेंगे. इसका दंड 5000 स्वीडिश क्रोनर या 715 डॉलर है, यद्यपि यही कृत्य इंग्लैंड या कई अन्य पश्चिमी देशों में अपराध नहीं है.
अब सवाल यह है कि जब अपराध स्वीडन में हुआ तो अरेस्ट इंग्लैंड में क्यों? इसके पीछे कारण है यूरोपियन अरेस्ट वारंट की व्यवस्था. इसके अधीन यूरोप के कई देश एक दूसरे के क्रिमिनल वारंट का तामिला अपने-अपने देश में करते हैं यदि उन्हें इसकी जानकारी दी जाती है.
अब इस पूरे मामले में क्यों इतनी तेजी रही, किस तरह से सही-गलत किया गया, क्या इसके पीछे कोई बड़ी ताकतों का हाथ रहा है, इन सब के बारे में मैं उतना ही जानता हूँ, जितना कई माध्यमों से पढ़-सुन पा रहा हूं. असली कहानी तो बहुत ऊँचे स्तर के लोग ही जानते होंगे. यहाँ पर तो मैंने मात्र इस पूरे प्रकरण का विधिक पहलु प्रस्तुत किया है, जो सरकारी दस्तावेजों के अनुसार बताया जा रहा है और जो बातें इंग्लैंड के डिस्ट्रिक्ट कोर्ट और हाई कोर्ट में बहस के दौरान सामने लायी गयी थीं.
लेखक अमिताभ ठाकुर आईपीएस अधिकारी हैं. लखनऊ में पदस्थ हैं. इन दिनों आईआईएम, लखनऊ में अध्ययनरत हैं.
Pankaj Dixit
December 18, 2010 at 6:25 am
Dear Amitabh,
Contentwise this is called the “News”
भारतीय़ नागरिक
December 18, 2010 at 10:27 am
यहां भी भारतीय पुलिस की तरह ही इस्तेमाल किया गया है असांजे के खिलाफ..
jaatak
December 18, 2010 at 11:57 am
10 days in Sweden: the full allegations against Julian Assange
Unseen police documents provide the first complete account of the allegations against the WikiLeaks founder
Nick Davies
guardian.co.uk, Friday 17 December 2010 21.30 GMT
Documents seen by the Guardian reveal for the first time the full details of the allegations of rape and sexual assault that have led to extradition hearings against the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange.
The case against Assange, which has been the subject of intense speculation and dispute in mainstream media and on the internet, is laid out in police material held in Stockholm to which the Guardian received unauthorised access.
Assange, who was released on bail on Thursday, denies the Swedish allegations and has not formally been charged with any offence. The two Swedish women behind the charges have been accused by his supporters of making malicious complaints or being “honeytraps” in a wider conspiracy to discredit him.
Assange’s UK lawyer, Mark Stephens, attributed the allegations to “dark forces”, saying: “The honeytrap has been sprung … After what we’ve seen so far you can reasonably conclude this is part of a greater plan.” The journalist John Pilger dismissed the case as a “political stunt” and in an interview with ABC news, Assange said Swedish prosecutors were withholding evidence which suggested he had been “set up.”
However, unredacted statements held by prosecutors in Stockholm, along with interviews with some of the central characters, shed fresh light on the hotly disputed sequence of events that has become the centre of a global storm.
Stephens has repeatedly complained that Assange has not been allowed to see the full allegations against him, but it is understood his Swedish defence team have copies of all the documents seen by the Guardian. He maintains that other potentially exculpatory evidence has not been made available to his team and may not have been seen by the Guardian.
The allegations centre on a 10-day period after Assange flew into Stockholm on Wednesday 11 August. One of the women, named in court as Miss A, told police that she had arranged Assange’s trip to Sweden, and let him stay in her flat because she was due to be away. She returned early, on Friday 13 August, after which the pair went for a meal and then returned to her flat.
Her account to police, which Assange disputes, stated that he began stroking her leg as they drank tea, before he pulled off her clothes and snapped a necklace that she was wearing. According to her statement she “tried to put on some articles of clothing as it was going too quickly and uncomfortably but Assange ripped them off again”. Miss A told police that she didn’t want to go any further “but that it was too late to stop Assange as she had gone along with it so far”, and so she allowed him to undress her.
According to the statement, Miss A then realised he was trying to have unprotected sex with her. She told police that she had tried a number of times to reach for a condom but Assange had stopped her by holding her arms and pinning her legs. The statement records Miss A describing how Assange then released her arms and agreed to use a condom, but she told the police that at some stage Assange had “done something” with the condom that resulted in it becoming ripped, and ejaculated without withdrawing.
When he was later interviewed by police in Stockholm, Assange agreed that he had had sex with Miss A but said he did not tear the condom, and that he was not aware that it had been torn. He told police that he had continued to sleep in Miss A’s bed for the following week and she had never mentioned a torn condom.
On the following morning, Saturday 14 August, Assange spoke at a seminar organised by Miss A. A second woman, Miss W, had contacted Miss A to ask if she could attend. Both women joined Assange, the co-ordinator of the Swedish WikiLeaks group, whom we will call “Harold”, and a few others for lunch.
Assange left the lunch with Miss W. She told the police she and Assange had visited the place where she worked and had then gone to a cinema where they had moved to the back row. He had kissed her and put his hands inside her clothing, she said.
That evening, Miss A held a party at her flat. One of her friends, “Monica”, later told police that during the party Miss A had told her about the ripped condom and unprotected sex. Another friend told police that during the evening Miss A told her she had had “the worst sex ever” with Assange: “Not only had it been the world’s worst screw, it had also been violent.”
Assange’s supporters point out that, despite her complaints against him, Miss A held a party for him on that evening and continued to allow him to stay in her flat.
On Sunday 15 August, Monica told police, Miss A told her that she thought Assange had torn the condom on purpose. According to Monica, Miss A said Assange was still staying in her flat but they were not having sex because he had “exceeded the limits of what she felt she could accept” and she did not feel safe.
The following day, Miss W phoned Assange and arranged to meet him late in the evening, according to her statement. The pair went back to her flat in Enkoping, near Stockholm. Miss W told police that though they started to have sex, Assange had not wanted to wear a condom, and she had moved away because she had not wanted unprotected sex. Assange had then lost interest, she said, and fallen asleep. However, during the night, they had both woken up and had sex at least once when “he agreed unwillingly to use a condom”.
Early the next morning, Miss W told police, she had gone to buy breakfast before getting back into bed and falling asleep beside Assange. She had awoken to find him having sex with her, she said, but when she asked whether he was wearing a condom he said no. “According to her statement, she said: ‘You better not have HIV’ and he answered: ‘Of course not,’ ” but “she couldn’t be bothered to tell him one more time because she had been going on about the condom all night. She had never had unprotected sex before.”
The police record of the interview with Assange in Stockhom deals only with the complaint made by Miss A. However, Assange and his lawyers have repeatedly stressed that he denies any kind of wrongdoing in relation to Miss W.
In submissions to the Swedish courts, they have argued that Miss W took the initiative in contacting Assange, that on her own account she willingly engaged in sexual activity in a cinema and voluntarily took him to her flat where, she agrees, they had consensual sex. They say that she never indicated to Assange that she did not want to have sex with him. They also say that in a text message to a friend, she never suggested she had been raped and claimed only to have been “half asleep”.
Police spoke to Miss W’s ex-boyfriend, who told them that in two and a half years they had never had sex without a condom because it was “unthinkable” for her. Miss W told police she went to a chemist to buy a morning-after pill and also went to hospital to be tested for STDs. Police statements record her contacting Assange to ask him to get a test and his refusing on the grounds that he did not have the time.
On Wednesday 18 August, according to police records, Miss A told Harold and a friend that Assange would not leave her flat and was sleeping in her bed, although she was not having sex with him and he spent most of the night sitting with his computer. Harold told police he had asked Assange why he was refusing to leave the flat and that Assange had said he was very surprised, because Miss A had not asked him to leave. Miss A says she spent Wednesday night on a mattress and then moved to a friend’s flat so she did not have to be near him. She told police that Assange had continued to make sexual advances to her every day after they slept together and on Wednesday 18 August had approached her, naked from the waist down, and rubbed himself against her.
The following day, Harold told police, Miss A called him and for the first time gave him a full account of her complaints about Assange. Harold told police he regarded her as “very, very credible” and he confronted Assange, who said he was completely shocked by the claims and denied all of them. By Friday 20 August, Miss W had texted Miss A looking for help in finding Assange. The two women met and compared stories.
Harold has independently told the Guardian Miss A made a series of calls to him asking him to persuade Assange to take an STD test to reassure Miss W, and that Assange refused. Miss A then warned if Assange did not take a test, Miss W would go to the police. Assange had rejected this as blackmail, Harold told police.
Assange told police that Miss A spoke to him directly and complained to him that he had torn their condom, something that he regarded as false.
Late that Friday afternoon, Harold told police, Assange agreed to take a test, but the clinics had closed for the weekend. Miss A phoned Harold to say that she and Miss W had been to the police, who had told them that they couldn’t simply tell Assange to take a test, that their statements must be passed to the prosecutor. That night, the story leaked to the Swedish newspaper Expressen.
By Saturday morning, 21 August, journalists were asking Assange for a reaction. At 9.15am, he tweeted: “We were warned to expect ‘dirty tricks’. Now we have the first one.” The following day, he tweeted: “Reminder: US intelligence planned to destroy WikiLeaks as far back as 2008.”………………
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/17/julian-assange-sweden
one of the accusers is, perhaps, Ana A***n, a femenist academin in her late 30’s ( as quoted in http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/7565838-who-is-anna-ardin-one-of-assanges-accusers)
jaatak