Assange’s ‘promiscuous lifestyle, refusal to test for HIV led to charges’

LONDON - A WikiLeaks employee has shed new light on the allegations of sexual misconduct that led to Julian Assange’s legal troubles.

WikiLeaks’ Swedish co-ordinator said in an exclusive interview that the two women, who say Assange sexually assaulted them, would never have complained to police if he had agreed to take an HIV test, reports the Daily Mail.

He further added that he repeatedly begged his boss to have the test, both to head off the possible police investigation and for Assange’s own peace of mind, given his promiscuous sex life.

“The two women told me that if he goes to the clinic for an HIV test, then they won’t go to the police,” said the colleague, who wishes to remain anonymous because he is a witness in the case brought by Swedish prosecutors.

“I became the middleman in these negotiations,” he added.

“I felt that if Julian had agreed to have the HIV test, they would have dropped it. I told him, ‘Just do it, and anyway, it’s good for you, because you’re sleeping around’. A lot of women were extremely attracted to Julian, and after a few minutes, they offered themselves to him. From my perspective, they were like groupies with Mick Jagger, and he takes these opportunities,” said the colleague.

The co-ordinator said he felt certain that the two women - who both allege that Assange forced them to have intercourse during the same week in August without using a condom, against their express wishes - had nothing to do with any supposed American intelligence plot to discredit him, as he has frequently claimed.

“The CIA is not behind this at all,” he said.

“Of course it is a golden opportunity for them. But from the beginning, it was personal,” he added.

He said Assange refused to take the test until it was too late, when all the Swedish clinics had closed for the weekend.

“Julian said, ‘I don’t like it when people are blackmailing me, and they are blackmailing me by threatening to go to the police’,” said the colleague.

Assange also told him that he had spoken to one of the alleged victims, known as ‘Ms W’, assuring him that ’she is fine, she won’t go to the police’.

The co-ordinator, however, said he knew from his own conversations with Ms W that she was not fine at all, but terrified she had been infected. (ANI)