The two accusers from a blog.
Ardin, one of the Assange's alleged victims, works in Sweden's Uppsala University and is known in some Cuban exile and dissident circles.
She visited Cuba about four times between 2002 and 2006 as a representative of Swedish social democrats, said Manuel Cuesta Morua, head of Cuba's Arco Progresista, a social-democratic dissident group.
She later wrongly alleged that some European funds for Cuban dissidents had been mishandled, Cuesta Morua said by telephone from Havana. She was said to have been born in Cuba, he added, but he never confirmed it with her.
Ardin has written for Asignaturas Cubanas, a Cuban exile magazine published in Sweden, and her 2007 master's thesis at Uppsala University was titled The Cuban multi-party system. Is the democratic alternative really democratic and an alternative after the Castro regime?
She could not be reached for comment, and Cuban exiles in Sweden who know her said she was keeping a low profile because of Assange's detention.
Two left-of-center websites also alleged that she was close to Cuban exile author Carlos Alberto Montaner and the Ladies in White, female relatives of Cuban political prisoners.
The websites portrayed Ardin's links to Cuba as evidence of a U.S.-backed plot to smear and jail Assange. One site said Montaner had links to the CIA.
Montaner told journalists that he did not recall ever meeting Ardin and dismissed the CIA allegation as Cuban propaganda. Ladies in White spokeswomen Berta Soler and Laura Pollán said they did not know Ardin.
Ardin's Cuba connections were first reported Sept. 14 by CounterPunch, a liberal newsletter co-edited by Alexander Cockburn, a steadfast critic of U.S. foreign policy.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/12/08/v-fullstory/1962779/accuser-in-wikileaks-saga-has.html#ixzz17YoqZm7O
