Julian Assange: the balcony defence (Guardian editorial)

[JDPriestly]

56. Borgstrom is, apparently, controversial himself.

Borgström earned a law degree from Stockholm University in 1974.[1] Thereafter he started to work as a lawyer. He has worked on several high-profile criminal cases, most notably as a defence counsel for convicted mass murderer Thomas Quick.[2] With no technical evidence, Quick was convicted of eight out of the more than thirty murders he confessed to. Three of the convictions have been overturned. It has been questioned whether Borgström as Thomas Quick's attorney neglected to protect his mentally disturbed client's objective interest in being judged not guilty.[3]

. . . .

Borgström has often attracted attention with his controversial behaviour. He claims that all men carry a collective guilt for violence against women and has in this context supported Gudrun Schyman's "Tax on Men".[6]

. . . .

In 2010 Borgström successfully appealed the decision to close the sexual assault case against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and became the legal representative of the two Swedish women who have accused Assange of sexual crimes.[8]

Off-topic, but a bit more fun, apparently Borgstrom's sister, Annette Kullenberg is more a party type than her brother appears to me to be. Annette is a journalist. Here is her tribute to a pastime for which the Swedes have as much of a reputation as for sexual liberation: drinking alcohol.

“To drink too much is part of our culture.”
Those words come from Swedish author Annette Kullenberg. Fights and rapes – all are blamed on our alcohol culture. Kullenberg wants to change that, she wants to see our excessive drinking from the other side, the positive side. “I think the Swedish culture is beautiful. A bit sentimental to some perhaps, but it ought to be honored nevertheless.” Kullenberg says she wants to write something “positive” about wine and liquor, and the purple plastic bags most people carry around these days. Kullenberg says that the warnings Swedes get from public authorities about the dangers of alcohol are “fascistic” in tone, and she is saddened over a comment made by Sarah Wamala, director of the Swedish National Institute of Public Health (Svenska folkhälsoinstitutet), who said retired Swedes consume too much alcohol. “As if older people weren’t allowed to have fun,” Kullenberg writes. “I suppose it’s better to pack old folks together and get rid of them instead. But it will always be like that in our country, the shame (over drinking) is glued to our soul. And nobody’s allowed to drink during the week unless they have guests from foreign countries.” Sweden will host the First Global Alcohol Conference this fall. “Time to shout ‘Skål!’” urges Kullenberg, whose favorite drink, en passant, is a dry Kir Royal .

http://www.nordstjernan.com/news/sweden/1289/

There is a picture of Annette Kullenberg on the page from which I excerpted that paragraph.

Anyway, to point to the relevance of this paragraph, apparently rape in Sweden can be blamed on the Swedish love of alcohol. Maybe that applies in the case of the Wikileaks defendant.

Anyway, character assassination can work both ways. It is a very tricky tactic because it can backfire.