Thaindian News

STOCKHOLM (BNO NEWS) — Swedish authorities on Saturday issued an arrest warrant for Julian Assange, the founder of whistle-blowing website Wikileaks.

Karin Rosander, the Director of Communication for the Swedish Prosecution Authority, told BNO News that the arrest warrant was issued in relation with two separate events. According to the office, one woman alleges Assange of rape while another woman alleges him of molestation.

“The person is charged in his absence when there is a risk that he might hinder the investigation,” a statement from the Swedish Prosecution Authority said. “More information cannot be released at this time.”

In a first response on his Twitter website, Assange denied the accusations. “The charges are without basis and their issue at this moment is deeply disturbing,” he said.

The organization earlier said it had not been contacted by Swedish police but said it was warned to expect ‘dirty tricks.’ “Needless to say this will prove hugely distracting,” a message from Wikileaks said.

The websites has made headlines several times this year. On April 5, the organization released a classified video which showed a 2007 helicopter attack in Iraq which left several people killed, including two Reuters journalists.

And last month, Wikileaks released the so-called ‘Afghan War Diary’, more than 92,000 documents with sensitive details about the ongoing war in Afghanistan. It was one of the largest leaks in the history of the U.S. military, but also exposed the names of Afghans who have provided information to NATO.

The current whereabouts of Assange are not known, but Assange spent time in Sweden last week and told members of the media that his organization is preparing to release 15,000 more secret documents from the Afghan war.

The U.S. Defense Department has previously stated that it is against the law to release classified information. “Those documents should be returned,” Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said. “There should be no further posting of these classified documents, and those that have been posted should be removed.”

“These documents are property of the United States government,” he added. “The unauthorized release of them threatens the lives of coalition forces, as well as Afghan nationals. All should be returned immediately, they should be removed from the Web, there should be no further posting of them to the Web, and all databases containing them should be destroyed.”

“There is a balance to make sure that all the available intelligence is accessible where it needs to be accessible,” Whitman continued. “But there should be safeguards, too, to preclude or mitigate instances where people may be acting in an improper, unauthorized or even illegal way.”

“Anything that we do as we assess the situation here and learn lessons from this will always be balanced with the imperative that our forces on the ground need to have access to the best information that we can provide them,” Whitman concluded.

Assange last week also met with Rick Falkvinge, the leader of the Pirate Party in Sweden. The party agreed to host several new WikiLeaks servers in Sweden to take full advantage of Swedish laws which protect whistle-blowers.

“We welcome the help provided by the Pirate Party,” said Assange during the meeting with Falkvinge. “Our organizations share many values and I am looking forward to future ways we can help each other improve the world.”

Assange said he hoped that the new Swedish Parliament will give ’serious consideration’ to further strengthen the country’s press protection legislation. “Western democracies are not always as free as one might think, and freedom of the press needs constant vigilance,” he said.

In a first response to the arrest warrant against Assange, Falkvinge said the allegations concern Assange as an individual, and therefore will not affect the cooperation between Wikileaks and the Pirate Party.

“It is very important to continue to support Wikileaks,” said Anna Troberg, the deputy leader of the Pirate Party. “The site provides a valuable function which must not be sensitive to actions of its representatives. The judiciary is charged with examining Assange and our job is to protect the ability to expose abuses of power.”

Troberg called for calm and said to wait for more details about the alleged incidents. “As little as we want to throw Assange to the wolves, just as little would we like to question the integrity of the two women who have filed charges,” she said.

The deputy leader further said the party will remain and continue to act on changes that are good for society and democracy. “The fight to protect Wikileaks is as important today as it was yesterday. Wikileaks is conducting a basic democracy work that we support,” Troberg said.

Earlier this month, Reporters Without Borders criticized Wikileaks by saying that the website showed “incredible irresponsibility” by releasing the “Afghan War Diary.”

Reporters Without Borders emphasized that revealing the identity of hundreds of people who collaborated with coalition forces in the Afghan war is extremely dangerous as the Taliban or other insurgent groups can use the information for possible deadly revenge attacks.

The organization also said that the release of the 92,000 documents could trigger a closer surveillance of the Internet by governments. But it also condemned the harassment of Wikileaks contributors and informants in wake of the arrest of Jacob Appelbaum, a Wikileaks researcher.