Third woman claims WikiLeaks founder seduced her

LONDON: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is at the centre of sex assault allegations by two women, is said to have seduced a third right from under her boyfriend's nose in Sweden.

Assange, 39, allegedly walked away with the girl, who had arrived with the American journalist, as they all dined together at a Stockholm restaurant.

An American revealed that he had gone out to dinner at Stockholm's Beirut restaurant with the WikiLeaks Swedish co-ordinator, the co-ordinator's girlfriend, and the journalist and his English girlfriend.

The journalist claims Assange ignored him and instead focused intently on his girlfriend, even following her out for a cigarette.

"When they hadn't come back after 45 minutes I went to see what was happening. They were standing very close together a little way down the street, and Julian was whispering in her ear," the Daily Mail quoted him as saying.

He later saw the two walking hand in hand, and when he challenged Assange, "he dropped into a classic fighter's pose, with his fists up".

"Assange seemed to take pleasure in humiliating me," he added.

The incident had taken place just two days before he had sex with Miss A, one of his two accusers, and five days before he bedded the second, Miss W.

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WikiLeaks founder says guards against death threats (Reuters)

Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, which has made public about 500,000 classified U.S. files on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, holds a news conference at the Geneva Press Club in Geneva, November 4, 2010, the day before the United Nation's Human Rights Council examines the U.S. human rights record in its universal periodic review programme.

Credit: Reuters/Valentin Flauraud

By Keith Weir and Adam Cox

LONDON/STOCKHOLM | Sat Dec 4, 2010 1:54pm EST

LONDON/STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said on Friday he and colleagues were taking steps to protect themselves after death threats following the publication of leaked U.S. diplomatic cables on their website.

One of Assange's lawyers said he would also fight any attempt to extradite his client to face questions over alleged sexual misconduct, adding that he believed foreign powers were influencing Sweden in the matter.

Washington is furious about the leak of hundreds of confidential diplomatic cables that have given unvarnished and sometimes embarrassing insights into the foreign policy of the United States and its allies.

Answering questions online from an undisclosed location, the 39-year-old Australian said anyone making threats against his life should be charged with incitement to murder.

"The threats against our lives are a matter of public record, however, we are taking the appropriate precautions to the degree that we are able when dealing with a superpower," Assange was quoted as saying on the Guardian website.

Britain's Guardian is one of a number of newspapers around the world with early access to diplomatic cables seen by WikiLeaks.

Assange, who is reported to be somewhere in southern England, has his own legal woes.

Swedish authorities said information missing from a European arrest warrant they had issued against Assange for alleged sex crimes had been handed to British authorities.

"We sent it. They asked for complementary information and now they have it," Swedish Prosecution Authority spokeswoman Karin Rosander said.

"CONSTANT CONTACT"

Bjorn Hurtig, a lawyer representing Assange, told Reuters he would not say where Assange was right now nor when he last spoke to him, though they were in "constant contact".

But he said an attempt to extradite him from another country, for example from Britain, would be resisted in court.

"If it is in a country where they speak English, I know that my co-counsel Mark Stephens will help me in fighting this extradition order and he will do so vigorously," he said in a telephone interview.

Stephens said he thought any arrest was not imminent.

"The Swedes have done their homework again and it's been resubmitted to teacher and we will see whether they have managed to get it right this time," he told Reuters.

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