Daniel Domscheit-Berg accused WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of many things in his book presented on Thursday, but perhaps the oddest allegation is that he abused the former insider’s cat.
“Julian was constantly battling for dominance, even with my tomcat Herr Schmitt,” Domscheit-Berg says in his book Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World’s Most Dangerous Website.
“Ever since Julian lived with me in Wiesbaden he [the cat] has suffered from psychosis. Julian would constantly attack the animal. He would spread out his fingers like a fork and grab the cat’s throat.”
The “mad Australian” did not always come off best during his stay in 2009, however, with Herr Schmitt sometimes managing to “dispatch Julian with a quick swipe of the paw”.
“It must have been a nightmare for the tomcat,” he said in the German-language version of the book, due to be published in more than a dozen countries from Friday. — Sapa-AFP