After nine days in jail, WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, has been released from a London prison on a provisional bail. He refutes the sexual assault charges and thanks his supporters, vowing to continue exposing official secrets. He is fighting extradition to Sweden.
WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, was released today (December 16, 2010) from a British prison after posting bail of 200,000 pounds ($311,800). He also had to turn in his passport, ordered to wear an electronic tag and observe an overnight curfew at the Suffolk home of Vaughan Smith, in eastern England. Smith is a former captain in the Grenadier Guards and founder of the Frontline Club, a journalists’ club in Paddington where Assange had spent some months working and staying in the club’s guest rooms. Assange’s attorney refers to it as ‘mansion arrest‘.
At least nine of Assange’s friends and supporters agreed to offer a total of 75,000 pounds of additional guarantees for the bail, bringing the total commitment to 275,000 pounds ($375,000). Among those who contributed to Assange’s bail were Michael Moore and Bianca Jagger.
Assange spoke to a crowd of journalists and supporters waiting outside the High Court in London, saying “It’s great to smell fresh air of London again.”. He thanked his supporters, his lawyers and the British legal system, “where if justice is not always an outcome, at least it is not dead yet.”
He is due in court early next month and again in early February for hearings on his potential extradition to Sweden, where authorities want to question him on sexual misconduct charges. “I don’t have too many fears about being extradited to Sweden. There are much bigger concerns about being extradited to the United States.” Assange told reporters.
Sweden’s extradition request could take months to resolve.
