Assange Witness Raises Questions About Alleged Sex Victim

A Swedish journalist who knows WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and the two Swedish women who have accused him of sexual assault is raising questions about the veracity of one of the women's claims.

It is the first time any of the witnesses in the Swedish police investigation has spoken publicly about the case.

Donald Bostrom, 56, a veteran foreign correspondent for newspapers like Sweden's Aftonbladet, told AOL News this week that Anna Ardin, one of Assange's accusers, told him two very different versions of her relationship with Assange and then told police a third version.

He said Ardin admitted "lying" to him.

Bostrom's claims come as Assange's lawyers prepare for a hearing Monday in London on whether he will be extradited to Sweden for questioning on sexual misconduct allegations made by Ardin and another woman. One accusation is defined as third-degree rape under Swedish law.

Bostrom's account as explained to AOL News matches some statements made to police by another Swedish journalist who also knows Assange and the two women. The statements were part of a 100-page police report recently leaked online. Bostrom's statements to police were also similar to the other journalist's statements.

"It smelled really wrong, all of it from beginning to end," that journalist said, according to the police report. "Because there was something there that didn't add up."

Bostrom helped organize media coverage of the event when Assange visited Sweden for a lecture last August. Ardin volunteered her apartment to Assange, saying she was going to be away, but then returned almost immediately, and the two lived together for a week after their disputed sexual encounter.

Bostrom said Ardin deliberately lied to him about the nature of their relationship at the start of the week, before there was any hint of trouble or any police investigation.

"First she voluntarily told me that Assange had wanted to go to bed with her but that she turned him down," Bostrom said during a lengthy telephone interview Thursday from Sweden.

Bostrom said Ardin made the remarks, unprompted, on Monday, Aug. 16, during an office meeting with two other people present.

"Then, a few days later, she said that she had been lying to me and that she did have sex with Julian. She'd had sex with him right away. She said that she had the hottest man on the planet, and she was proud of it."

But just hours later, on Aug. 20, after Ardin compared notes on the phone with the other woman about their separate sexual encounters with Assange, the two went to the police, and allegations of rape were lodged against Assange.

"I was shocked when I heard," said Bostrom. The other journalist stated that he was "shocked" as well when he heard the news.

Bostrom said he had acted as a mediator between Assange and the two women in the hours before they went to police. The two women wanted Assange to take an HIV test, but by the time he agreed, the testing places had closed for the weekend.

Ardin told police that Assange had been rough with her during sex, had pinned her arms down at one point and had torn a condom, deliberately she believed. Pictures of a torn condom were included in the police report.

"I thought it was very strange that she saved a condom," Bostrom said, referring to Ardin's actions after her first sexual encounter with Assange. "That troubles me, and so do the three different versions of her story. What's key to me is that she continued letting him sleep in her bed."

Bostrom also said Ardin told him she went to the police only to support the other woman and did not consider that she had a strong case against Assange.

Swedish attorney Claes Borgstrom, who represents Ardin and the other woman, told AOL News today that he will not comment on the substance of the two journalists' accounts, but said he didn't think they will have much bearing on the Assange case.

Borgstrom added that Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny has told him that there are other witnesses in the case whose information is not included in the police report leaked online.

Bostrom had his own brush with controversy in 2009 when an article he wrote suggesting that Israeli troops harvested the organs of dead Palestinian fighters led to a brief diplomatic crisis between Israel and Sweden. Israel wanted the Swedish government to condemn the article because of some unsubstantiated claims; the Swedish Foreign Ministry refused.

Both Bostrom and the other journalist warned Assange on separate occasions that his frequent flings with women admirers posed a security risk to him.

"Assange was like Mick Jagger," Bostrom said. "The overwhelming majority of women I saw fell head over heels for him. I think he hurt a lot of women who thought they were special to him. Nothing is black and white, but I think that may have happened in this case."

Bostrom said he does not believe Assange raped either woman, but noted he finds the second woman's accounts more credible. The second woman, who invited Assange to her home the night of Aug. 16, told police they had sex several times with a condom and then she had woken up to find Assange had penetrated her without a condom.

"I think it's possible Julian might have abused her in some way," he said.

The allegations that eventually led to an Interpol red notice warrant for Assange's arrest in late November involve a 10-day period after Assange arrived in Sweden on Aug. 11, a Wednesday.

Ardin told police that she offered Assange her apartment because she was supposed to be away. However, she returned to her place on Friday, Aug. 13, and she and Assange stayed together there for another week.

During that time, Assange had sex with the second woman, who attended the lecture he gave on Saturday, Aug. 14. When the two went to the police on Friday, Aug. 20, they both gave information about their sexual encounters with him that led a prosecutor to decide there had been sexual assault.

Bostrom told AOL News that he had been in daily contact with Ardin during Assange's visit and that she never mentioned that he had been violent or inappropriate with her.

"It's a tricky situation," Bostrom said. "I like Anna. If a woman says she's been abused, you want to take it seriously. But in this case I have to wonder: It's as if she catches the hottest man on the planet, she thinks, and then she finds out he's dating another woman."

Bostrom was one of several witnesses interviewed by Swedish investigators in the aftermath of the allegations the two women made against Assange.

Bostrom said that Ardin "happily" made plans to have a crayfish party at her home on Saturday, Aug. 14, just 24 hours after she would later tell police she was assaulted by Assange.

What most confused both Bostrom and the other journalist, after they found out about the sexual assault allegations, was that Ardin willingly let Assange remain in her apartment with her after the alleged attack took place.

Bostrom said he came to the crayfish party with two WikiLeaks supporters who planned to bring Assange back to their home to stay.

"But Anna agreed to let Julian stay with her, so the two of them left with me," Bostrom said. "She seemed happy and relaxed around him, perfectly normal."

The other journalist, who was also at the crayfish party, told police that he had also offered Assange a place to stay.

"I asked Anna if it was OK if he stayed at her place or if she wanted me to [take] him to my place," he told police. "She said, 'No problem, he can stay with me.'"

He told police that he continued to check with Ardin during the week about whether she was OK with Assange staying with her.

"I actually asked her every day," he said in his statement. He said Ardin would tell him, "It's OK, it's no problem."

AOL News first identified Ardin in a story in December, after mainstream media outlets such as MSNBC and CBS News identified her. Ardin's name, along with that of the other accuser, have been widely available on the Internet since the scandal broke in August.