Pentagon may be behind rape charges: Assange

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange believes that the Pentagon could be behind the false rape charges that were filed against him on Friday by Swedish prosecutors and then withdrawn after a few hours.

"I don't know who is behind this but we have been warned that the Pentagon plans to use dirty tricks to spoil things for us," Assange told Swedish daily Aftonbladet. So far, Pentagon has not reacted to the charge.

The website is set to publish 15,000 more secret documents about the war in Afghanistan in coming weeks, having recently released nearly 77,000 papers and sparking charges that it had endangered the lives of informants and others.

The information supported existing suspicions like Inter Services Intelligence's ISI links with extremists and extra-judicial killings by United States' forces. Assange has been asked by the Pentagon not to release another 15,000 documents, which has blasted him for endangering the lives of local informers in Afghanistan mentioned in the documents.

The 39-year-old former hacker from Australia has said that he still plans to release the documents. Soon after the charges emerged on Friday, Assange posted a message on twitter denying these charges.

"The charges are without basis and their issue at this moment is deeply disturbing," said the twitter feed.

"We were warned to expect 'dirty tricks'. Now we have the first one. Why these accusations are coming at this point in time is an interesting question. I haven't been contacted by the police. The allegations are false," he told Dagens Nyheter, another Swedish newspaper.

However, prosecutors in Sweden have said that they did not make a mistake when they issued an arrest warrant, even though it was withdrawn, according to Al Jazeera, but separate molestation charges are still underway and a decision will be made later this week.

"You can't call it a mistake. Prosecutors have to make decisions very quickly sometimes on serious crimes," said Karin Rosander, from Sweden's prosecution authority, who noted that the decision had to be made on the information available at the moment.

Image: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange holds up a copy of the Guardian newspaper during a press conference at the Frontline Club in central London | Photograph: Andrew Winning/Reuters