With five days to go until WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange appears in a UK court for a hearing on extradition to Sweden, Crikey has obtained a copy of the full police report of the allegations against him.

The report, which goes into extensive detail concerning the events surrounding the allegations, includes detailed witness statements by both women involved in the case, as well as a number of witnesses and an interview with Assange himself.

The report  has been circulating in Stockholm for some time, and is likely to be widely distributed on the internet soon.

It paints a far more complex picture of the accounts given to police of the incidents in question than have appeared either in the Swedish prosecution service’s statements on the case – or, more significantly, than a report in The Guardian by Nick Davies, which drew on a copy of the report he had obtained separately.

At time of going to press, we’re still wading through the report, both the Swedish and partial English versions, with a full report to come later. However, the report changes the nature of the received story dramatically.

As readers may by now recall, Assange has been accused (though not charged) with four incidents by two women. Three relate to the first, Anna Bernardin*, the organiser of his speaking tour, and allege one count of ‘s-xual coercion’ (a specifically Swedish charge) regarding non-condom use, and two misconduct accusations for unsafe s-x and unwanted s-xual advances. The fourth accusation is by the second complainant Sofia Wilen** alleging third degree rape, for unsafe s-x while sleeping.

Among the details of the story:

  • Assange had been warned by journalist Johannes Wahlstrom that his flirtatious manner with women – which Wahlstrom had observed in the UK – would get him into trouble in Sweden, both because of its different s-xual character and the possibility of a ‘honeytrap’ being set by security services.
  • Assange’s two accusers, who claimed not to have known each other at the time of their intitial contact with the police and the media, had met at Assange’s lecture on  August 14 and had been in touch throughout the week, leading up to their report to the police.
  • Bernardin, who had complained that Assange would not move out of her apartment after their initial s-xual encounter, rejected other offers of accommodation for Assange, on Assange’s behalf.
  • Bernardin told friends during the week that she was being Assange’s ‘mother’, and joked that one way to guarantee his Swedish residency would be for her to adopt him.
  • Intermediaries had urged Assange to take an STI test as Wilen requested in order to avert the possibility of police involvement.
  • Bernardin expressed more anger and rage with Wilen than with Assange when she found out that Assange had been having a relationship with both of them.
  • Contrary to other reports, neither woman described feeling unsafe around Assange, or threatened by him, at the time when the alleged incidents occurred.

All that and more. Film at eleven.

*Bernardin is also known as Anna Ardin.

**the possible complainants names are so well known – googling ‘assange r-pe accusers’ produces them immediately – that pseudonyms serve no purpose.