When Interpol issued an arrest warrant earlier this week for WikiLeaks
founder Julian Assange, the international police agency charged him with
"sex crimes" but didn't specify the offense any further, prompting rumors
that he had been accused of rape. He hadn't. "It turns out," Washington's
Blog reports, that "it was for violating an obscure Swedish law against
having sex without a condom." During a business trip to Stockholm last
August, Assange had unprotected sex with two women (a bizarre and
painfully detailed account is available on the Daily Mail's Web site) who
upon realizing that they had both slept with him—and that he had blown
them both off—jointly approached police about his refusal to take an STD
test. At the time, Assange's Swedish lawyer confirmed that "the principal
concern the women had about Assange's behavior … related to his lack of
interest in using condoms and his refusal to undergo testing, at the
women's request, for sexually transmitted disease." (Assange actually did
use a condom with one of the women, but it broke.) This, apparently, is
hazy legal territory in Sweden. While the "consent of both women to sex
with Assange has been confirmed by prosecutors," as a former attorney
wrote in an impassioned op-ed, Assange has been charged with something
called "sex by surprise," which reportedly carries a $715 fine. According
to Assange's London attorney, Mark Stephens, prosecutors have yet to
explain the charges or meet with the WikiLeaks chief to discuss them,
which he's agreed to do. "Whatever 'sex by surprise' is, it's only an
offense in Sweden—not in the U.K. or the U.S. or even Ibiza," Stephens
fumed. "I feel as if I'm in a surreal Swedish movie being threatened by
bizarre trolls."
