Julian Assange hopes photograph of alleged victim smiling will undermine rape claims

Julian Assange hopes a photo of the 33-year-old Swedish woman who accused him of rape will in fact help clear his name.

Meanwhile, Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, has what has been alleged against the WikiLeaks founder in Sweden would not be regarded as criminal offense in most other countries.

Having had sex without a condom with a woman who was sleeping was "not a crime in Latin America," Correa said, according to the Sunday Times.

"The crimes that Assange is accused of, they would not be crimes in 90 to 95 percent of the planet," Correa told the Sunday Times, according to Agence France-Presse (Sunday Times articles are protected by a pay wall).

Asked how allegedly using force to begin intercourse could not be a crime, he reportedly answered:

"A woman he was staying with? Sleeping together in the same bed? Let's pass this on to the Swedish justice system. But, for example, not to use a condom in an act between a couple, this is not a crime in Latin America." 

Assange's alleged victim had reportedly earlier participated in consensual sex.

Correa added that the issue of what constituted rape had been "irrelevant to the decision taken by Ecuador" to grant Assange, 41, asylum.

The photograph, meantime, published by Britain's Mail on Sunday, shows the Swedish woman smiling for the camera and standing with Assange and three other people.

The woman later told police that 48 hours before the picture was taken, Assange sexually assaulted her.

Attorneys for Assange, who has since June 19 avoided extradition to Sweden to face sex assault charges by residing at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, would likely use the photo to undermine the woman’s case should it reach court.

The photograph was taken on August 15, 2010, at the Glenfiddich restaurant in Stockholm at a dinner hosted by Rickard Falkvinge, the founder of the Swedish Pirate Party, which campaigns for greater government transparency.

Falkvinge reportedly said the purpose of the three-hour dinner was to sign a deal for WikiLeaks to use the party’s computer servers.

Assange's lawyers also claim that two days after the alleged assault in Sweden, Assange and Woman A, as the 33-year-old is known, attended a conference and two dinner parties where the pair were practically inseparable.

During one party, Woman A tweeted that she was "with the world’s coolest, smartest people!"

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