Having sex with an unconscious (due to sleep) woman counts as rape in the UK. Only the UK and Sweden's laws matter when extraditing between those countries.
The allegation is there was no consent. From the arrest warrant:
> 4. Rape
> On 17 August 2010, in the home of the injured party [SW] in Enkoping, Assange deliberately consummated sexual intercourse with her by improperly exploiting that she, due to sleep was in a helpless state.
sure he s accused of it. not the worst form of rape but still rape accusation. he should under normal circumstances go to court. but obviously the case is a part of a much bigger tangle here
I understand you feel Swedish law is too harsh on this, but surely that is besides the point since Assange was in Sweden at the time of the alleged crime? It doesn't really matter if his actions qualifies as rape in any other country or not if they do in Sweden (which was for the courts to decide).
Generally a country will only extradite you if the crime alleged is also a crime in that country. Some countries also stipulate that the punishment must not be severely stronger than in the current country.
Generally that's the case. However, Sweden was trying to extradite him under a European Arrest Warrant which has no such requirement for the offence to be a crime in the country being extradited from and has much weaker safeguards in general. (This has caused some problems over the years.)