WikiLeaks is embroiled in controversy once again. This time, its editor is feeling the heat at a more personal level. Sweden’s Stockholm District Court on Thursday ordered WikiLeaks founder and editor Julian Assange to be detained.
This time, it’s not something WikiLeaks reported that is putting Assange in the media spotlight. Rather, it’s his alleged actions. The Swedish court is issuing an international warrant for the Australian’s arrest based on suspicions of rape and sexual molestation.
“The background is that he must be interrogated in the investigation and we haven’t been able to reach him to perform these interrogations,” Director of Public Prosecution Marianne Ny said Thursday in a statement before a court hearing.
Ny heads the Prosecution Authority Development Center in Gothenburg, Sweden. The center handles appeals against prosecutor decisions on sex crimes. According to Bloomberg, Ny launched her investigation on Sept. 1 after Chief Prosecutor Eva Finne decided to drop a rape charge on Aug. 25 and reduce a molestation charge to a lesser one. The two women who accused Assange of rape and molestation appealed Finne’s decision on Aug. 27.
A Controversial Site
A not-for-profit media organization, WikiLeaks’ goal is to bring important news and information to the public that might not otherwise find a platform. Hence the name.
WikiLeaks promises a secure and anonymous way for sources to leak information to the group’s journalists. The site launched in 2007 and Time magazine said it “could become as important a journalistic tool as the Freedom of Information Act.”
The site has been the center of controversy more than once, including a high-profile case in 2008. That’s when Swiss bank Julius Baer dropped a lawsuit against the whistle-blower site. The drama began shortly after the bank filed a complaint against WikiLeaks and Dynadot for posting leaked documents. But Baer dropped the lawsuit as…