Yeah, those charges are very real. They've continually been upheld in courts in both the UK and Sweden.
https://www-m.cnn.com/2017/05/19/europe/julian-assange-swede...
“Arrested on suspicion” (and “skipping bail”) being separate to that.
There are two women. One posted on Twitter the next day boasting about the awesome night she'd had with Assange. She later deleted the post but others had recorded it already. The other woman sent lots of text messages saying she wasn't raped and only reported Assange because she wanted him to take an std test, that the police had blown it up and seemed to want to get him.
http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-07/julian-assange-goes...
Moreover the women only filed these charges after they met each other and realised they'd both slept with him.
Look, I don't know why you're being so skeptical about this. False reports of rape are extremely common. Most credible studies I've seen peg it at 50% or higher. You should never take such an accusation at face value before a case has been won and in this case we don't even need a trial - the women both created documentary evidence they were lying and one even attempted to destroy it.
The burden of proof is on the commenter posting the claims.
The article linked in the parent merely is a description of Assange's own statement, his side of the story, which certainly has no more credibility than the alleged victim and the legal authority. For example, regarding Assange's claims about text messages, the article makes a point of saying, "The ABC has not seen the text messages."
> the women both created documentary evidence they were lying and one even attempted to destroy it.
Again, any credible evidence? Surely this story would be in the NY Times and other major publications.
> False reports of rape are extremely common. Most credible studies I've seen peg it at 50% or higher.
I don't agree and I've never heard of such a study. We also are not talking about 'reports' by alleged victims, but an indictment by legal authorities after they examined the evidence. Again, perhaps the parent can provide some the evidence they say they've seen supporting this extraordinary claim about rape accusations, because false claims on the Internet are certainly even more common.
The burden of the person who wants to learn rather than argue is to do research for themselves. I don't care whether you believe me or not - I mean, why would I?