Julian Assange Court Appearance; WikiLeaks Founder Asks For Bail

UPDATE: Julian Assange has been granted bail by a British judge.

LONDON (AP) — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared Tuesday in a London court, seeking bail to get out of a British jail as he fights a Swedish request to extradite him in a sex-crimes investigation.

The 39-year-old Australian was brought into court in a prison van before the hearing as supporters and journalists gathered in the street and in the courtroom.

The City of Westminster Magistrates' court was packed with lawyers, journalists and celebrities, including filmmaker Ken Loach and socialite Jemima Khan who have both offered to contribute 20,000 pounds ($31,500) each in bond for Assange.

Assange is wanted for questioning after two women accused him of sexual misconduct in separate encounters in Sweden over the summer. Lawyers for Assange say he denies the allegations and will contest Sweden's attempt to extradite him for questioning.

Assange was placed into custody at a hearing a week ago after surrendering to Scotland Yard to answer a Swedish arrest warrant.

Assange's lawyer, Mark Stephens, said his client would offer to be electronically tagged and stay at an address known to the police.

"One's never going to count one's chickens until they're hatched, but I hope that in these circumstances the district judge will feel confident" granting bail, Stephens told Sky News.

Gemma Lindfield, appearing for the Swedish authorities, asked the court to deny Assange bail.

"This is not a case about WikiLeaks, rather a case about alleged serious offenses against two women," she said.

Lindfield said the allegations were serious, while Assange had only weak ties to Britain and "the means and ability to abscond."

Assange is being represented in court by Geoffrey Robertson, a former appeals judge at the U.N. Special Court for Sierra Leone who specializes in freedom of speech cases. Robertson's former clients include author Salman Rushdie.

Some Assange supporters suspect the extradition request has been motivated by WikiLeaks' decision last month to begin publishing a trove of 250,000 secret U.S. diplomatic cables, something Swedish officials have denied.

"It is too much of a coincidence," said protester Alex Potterill, 33. "This is an attack on the valuable work of WikiLeaks. It is an attempt to gag a valuable source of information."

Assange remained defiant in comments from prison relayed Tuesday by his mother. Australia's Seven network said Christine Assange spoke to her son for 10 minutes and asked him, at the network's request, whether it had been worth it.

"My convictions are unfaltering," the network quoted Julian Assange as saying. "I remain true to the ideals I have expressed. This circumstance shall not shake them. If anything, this process has increased my determination that they are true and correct."

The WikiLeaks disclosures, which have continued since Assange was detained in prison, have deeply angered U.S. officials, who claim that other countries have already curtailed their dealings with the U.S. government as a result.

Assange's Swedish lawyer, Bjorn Hurtig, claims the courts are stacked against defendants in sex cases in Sweden. However, a 2009 European Commission-funded study found only 10 percent of sex offenses reported in Sweden result in a conviction.

A decision on whether to extradite Assange is expected to take several weeks. Both Assange and the Swedish government are entitled to appeal against the ruling if the judge rules against them.

Britain's national security adviser said Monday that U.K. government websites could be attacked in retribution if Assange is not released. Online "hacktivists" have already launched cyber attacks on companies that cut ties to WikiLeaks, including MasterCard Inc., Visa Inc. and PayPal Inc.

In his statement Tuesday, Assange called those companies "instruments of U.S. foreign policy."

"I am calling on the world to protect my work and my people from these illegal and immoral attacks," he was quoted as saying.

___

Associated Press Writer Rohan Sulivan in Sydney contributed to this report.

Comments

[Curtis Eichelberger]

10:55 AM on 12/16/2010

http://www.redbubble.com/people/curtisblack72/t-shirts/6442180-1-julian-assange-still-rockin-america

ASSANGE !! STILL ROCKIN AMERICA !

[Oilygarch]

08:25 AM on 12/16/2010

Harding says:
"I would expect him to be freed. Whether that takes hours or a little bit longer, I don't know, but it seems that he's going to be out."

Being tethered to a GPS tracker for surveilance and under house-arrest after curfew and having to report to the police station once a day is hardly being free. I would restate that to being out of jail, but, not free.

[Oilygarch]

08:10 AM on 12/16/2010

''Justice Department officials are trying to find out whether Mr. Assange encouraged or even helped the analyst, Pfc. Bradley Manning, to extract classified military and State Department files from a government computer system.''

Nobody needs help to copy readily available files to a CDROM and thumb-driv­e. But, Assange probably helped in ways to securely receive them once these files were extracted, which is probably not an offense. WikiLeaks helps all its informants­/whistlebl­owers get their files to them in a secure manner using TOR Onion Routing. So, given that that probably won't stick they will attempt to get Assange on the selling of stolen property, except that WikiLeaks doesn't sell, it gives away. But most of the news outlets he forwarded these leaked cables are commercial news entities, meaning that these charges would apply more to them. Except that it could be argued that the Pentagon papers were analogousl­y ''stolen''­/leaked and teh New York Times won that case which establishe­s a precedent for these charges not sticking either.

What the justice department and U. S. leadership will probably do is try to make Assange's life as difficult as possible while other entities may concentrat­e on making life impossible if they get the chance.

[gakabani]

07:40 PM on 12/15/2010

The current recession is equivalent to the same conditions the Weimar Replucic was in Germany, next comes fascism. We must be prepared to overcome the next push by the Blevins and corrupt democrats.

[marioninreno]

09:13 AM on 12/16/2010

corrupt democrats???? try selfish, greedy republicans who only care about the rich. they don't even care about passing START to protect our country.. they don't care about putting the country in dept to please their millionaire/billionaire buddies.. it is just plain sick!

[mnkors]

03:30 PM on 12/15/2010

The possible explanation of Swedish zeal in prosecuting Assange:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8202745/WikiLeaks-Swedish-government-hid-anti-terror-operations-with-America-from-Parliament.html

The case was dismissed and then resurrected, yet still no indictment.

"The new revelations contained in the Swedish cables … shed some light on the ferocity of the Swedish prosecutorial process in this case,” Mark Stephens, Mr Assange’s lawyer said.
“The prosecutor has said there is ‘no condition’ for bail that will satisfy them.”

[Opening Shares]

10:30 AM on 12/15/2010

Do you really know how deep the corruption of the US government is? Of course not. Do you have any idea of how media functions to validate a corrupt system by simply not reporting on facts that people would find depressing enough to think twice about making that next purchase or take personal responsibility by not investing in Wall Street? You do and that's good. But that's only the tip of the iceberg.

The wild success of the Tea Party is exhibit A in the on going trial of the media's portrayal of reality as a surreal abstraction that allows people to be comfortable with the erosion of their real and long term interests. Allowing power and money to conglomerate among those that already have an inordinate amount of it is by anyone's sensibilities a formula for enslavement. But that is exactly what is happening.

Exhibit B- Spencer Bachus incoming House Financial Services Committee chair "Washington and the regulators are there to serve the banks"

One of the few promises Obama made in his presidential campaign to come true is for disinfecting sunlight to bring us transparency of government which was kept by WIkileaks. Laying bare the facts about how the US government serves the powerful elite at the expense of it's citizens is the first step to turn the US from a global tyranny to nation of liberty it was intended to be.

Support Wikileaks. Sign this petition from Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR)

http://bit.ly/hsKUT8

[georgecarlin1776]

08:59 AM on 12/15/2010

ur government contactors in action again...any Republicans want to defend this?
http://www.antifascistencyclopedia.com/allposts/wikileaks-us-taxpayer-pays-for-afghan-police-pedophile-parties-gratis-dyncorp

[Oilygarch]

02:18 PM on 12/15/2010

I don't know about you, but I think I hear crickets. ;-P

[2843478]

08:51 AM on 12/15/2010

For more details on the sexual allegations story search for this article, The Wikileaks sex files: How two one-night stands sparked a worldwide hunt for Julian Assange by Richard Pendlebury.
I personally do not believe in the conspiracy theory that the US government through one of its agencies has coordinated the whole thing, but I do believe that the US government might have placed a few calls to make sure the Swedish would pursue this to exhaustion. Really, read the article and draw your own conclusions. Merry Xmas.

[Oilygarch]

02:29 PM on 12/15/2010

It would not be the first time that the U. S. has ''influenced'' the judiciary of another country:

As WikiLeaks has already unveiled:
* U. S. and Spanish courts colluded :
> ...to have charges against Dick Cheney et al to be dropped for war crimes.
> ...to have charges against Army soldiers dropped for the ki||ing of journalist cameramen in 2003
* U. S. and German government and judicial system colluded to have charges dropped against families suing for wrongful kidnapping, incarceration and torture of THE WRONG PERSON who the U. S. thought was a terrorist until they figured out they had the wrong person after doing all this
* Meddling with Brazilian state law enforecement and judiciary for the reclassification of ''terrorism'' to better align with our ops for the GWoT
* Practically writing the rules for teh Colombians under Plan Colombia
* Infiltrating the Venezuelan military for the overthrow of Chavez

Nahhh, who us, US? We would never do such a thing as to coordinate the arrest and persecution if Assange on even the pettiest crimes if by all means necessary to keep him tethered and discredited and occupied, contained! Nahhh! Never happen! LMAO!! ;-P

[oldetripreal]

07:41 AM on 12/15/2010

How Julian Assange ( Editor-in-chief and spokesperson for WikiLeaks ) will end


http://olderime.wordpress.com/2010/11/28/how-julian-assange-editor-in-chief-and-spokesperson-for-wikileaks-will-end/

[bornefree]

05:50 AM on 12/15/2010

He should fear for his life. There are some very hostile forces out there looking for his head.

[gakabani]

07:38 PM on 12/15/2010

Yes, we are all WikiLeaks now, we must be concerned that the USA becomes a Nazi state.

[Macready]

05:12 AM on 12/15/2010

from last night's Channel 4 News:

http://www.channel4.com/news/wikileaks-julian-assange-granted-bail

watch it . . . he is still in solitary confinement ..hasn't been charged with anything . . . . it's disgusting

[Jmaximus Spartacus]

04:48 AM on 12/15/2010

I am trying to raise money to support Wikileaks and Assange, please visit my t-shirt shop I set up at cafepress, profits will help support wikileaks and Assange defense fund. Since those spineless weasels at PayPal and Amazon dropped wikileaks there fewer means of support. Hopefully this will help in a peaceful non-hacker way...

www.cafepress.com/wikishirts

[freedomspeak]

02:06 AM on 12/15/2010

HEY THERE....!!
HERE IS IS THE EXPOSE ON JULIAN .... ...LIKE I SAID ..WHAT IS>??? THE USA GOVT GVG THE SWEDE GOVT?? TO GET HIM HERE>POST HASTE!! CHECK IT OUT>!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtAOeiY0V4k

Swedish Television's Jesper Huor and Bosse Lindquist exclusive rough-cut of first in-depth documentary on WikiLeaks and the people behind it!

"From summer 2010 until now, SVT has been following the secretive media organization WikiLeaks and its enigmatic Editor-in-Chief Julian Assange.

Reporters Jesper Huor and Bosse Lindquist have traveled to key countries where WikiLeaks operates, interviewing top members, such as Assange, new Spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson, as well as people like Daniel Domscheit-Berg who now is starting his own version - Openleaks.org."

The documentary also includes interviews with Ian Overton from The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, James Ball of TBIJ and WikiLeaks, Icelandic MP Birgitta Jónsdóttir, former WikiLeaks collaborators Herbert Snorrason and Smári McCarthy, and PRQ CEO Mikael Viborg.

The documentary looks at WikiLeaks' philosophy and operations, some of its famous disclosures including the Kenya report, the Guantanamo manuals, Kaupthing, Trafigura, the Collateral Murder video, the Afghanistan and Iraq war logs, the US administration's reactions, and the lead-up to the Cablegate release.

[karen1p]

01:40 AM on 12/15/2010

The reason they are trying to get this man......the banking criminal industry does not want the info dumped about them.

Take them down, Julian!

[Whinger]

01:36 AM on 12/15/2010

The enactment of bloody minded justice, the American Poodles obeying the will of the master!