Jemima Khan Turns on Julian Assange, ‘the Australian L. Ron Hubbard’

Feb 8, 2013 4:45 AM EST

The British socialite once helped post the WikiLeaks founder’s bail. Now she’s become fed up with his quest to avoid facing sexual-assault charges and his ‘cultish’ demands.

For years she was his most faithful and high-profile supporter, even putting up a reported £20,000 toward his £200,000 bail.

But now, it seems, the romance between millionaire activist Jemima Khan and the fair-haired founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, has broken down irrevocably, after Khan penned a scathing piece in a British political magazine saying that Assange is “an Australian L. Ron Hubbard” who demands “blinkered, cultish devotion” from his followers.

Yes, the woman is clearly pissed. And given that Khan—the daughter of billionaire businessman Sir Jimmy Goldsmith and ex-wife of Imran Khan—is worth many millions herself, it’s probably really, really not about the money.

Khan was said by friends to have been angered when Assange flouted his bail conditions and walked into the Ecuadoran Embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faces allegations of sexual assault.

His WikiLeaks website had, of course, published a huge quantity of U.S. diplomatic and military cables, and his lawyers said that if he went to Sweden, he risked extradition to the U.S. on espionage charges, for which the penalty could be death. (A U.S. soldier, Bradley Manning, has been in custody since 2010 for leaking information, including the diplomatic cables, to Assange. His trial is due to start this year. Prosecutors have said they will not seek the death sentence for treason.)

more:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/08/jemima-khan-turns-on-julian-assange-the-australian-l-ron-hubbard.html