Women’s officer condemns Assange talk

OUSU’s women’s officer attacks the Union for inviting Julian Assange to speak.


OUSU’s women’s officer has attacked the Union for inviting Julian Assange to speak.

Suzanne Holsomback, who is Vice President for women, told The Tab: “The Oxford Union Society’s invitation to Julian Assange glorifies his past with WikiLeaks and neglects the reality that he is unwilling to face his European Arrest Warrant, as well as allegations of rape from the criminal justice system of Sweden.

On the run… Assange

“Using a fugitive of justice is deliberately provocative and is clearly an exercise in sensationalism on the part of the Oxford Union Society.

“In addition to this, the Union’s invitation is blatantly disrespectful to survivors of rape and sexual assault because it silently affirms the myth that most rape reports are false and propagates the fictitious idea that rape and sexual assault survivors are to blame.

“False rape reports are no higher than any other crime and only perpetrators of rape are to blame for their crime.”

Yesterday angry students threatened to protest outside the Union during the January 23 speech.

Last term the Cambridge Tab revealed how their student union had secretly blocked Assange from speaking. Could we be in for a repeat?