WikiLeaks' Assange Released on Bail

LONDON (Dec. 16) -- Julian Assange was freed on bail today, and after nine days in solitary in a Victorian jail, the WikiLeaks founder told reporters: "It's great to smell the fresh air of London again."

Assange was released after a judge rejected an appeal by British prosecutors to continue holding him.

The 39-year-old Australian emerged from the High Court this evening to cries and cheers from supporters. Assange thanked "all the people who've had faith in me," his legal team and the members of the press who were "not all taken in [by the Swedish sex-crime allegations] and considered to look deeper."

"During my time in solitary confinement ... I had time to reflect on those people also on remand in worse conditions than me -- those people also need your help and support," he said. "With that in mind, I will continue my work and continue to protest my innocence."

Although Assange's speech sounded triumphant, today's decision is only a small victory for the anti-secrecy campaigner. He still faces a major legal battle to prevent his extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted on sex-crimes allegations, and U.S. prosecutors are now reportedly trying to build a conspiracy case against him.

Assange had been granted bail by a London court on Tuesday after a group of high-profile supporters -- including moviemaker Michael Moore, British film director Ken Loach, magazine publisher Felix Dennis, veteran war journalist John Pilger and English socialite Jemima Khan -- agreed to make an upfront security payment of $316,000 and provide a further $62,000 in sureties.

But government lawyers appealed that decision, claiming there was a high risk that the WikiLeaks boss might flee the country. Swedish authorities on Wednesday revealed that the decision to protest bail was made solely by British prosecutors and was not requested by the Swedish prosecutor's office.

Judge Duncan Ouseley today dismissed the prosecution's claim that Assange was a flight risk and ruled that he could be released from south London's Wandsworth prison, where he has been detained following his Dec. 7 surrender, after his supporters paid $316,000 in cash to the court. The anti-secrecy campaigner will now have to follow a strict set of bail conditions, including wearing an electronic tag, reporting to police every evening and observing two four-hour curfews each day.

The court also ordered that Assange must stay at Ellingham Hall, a swank mansion owned by one of his backers, former British army Capt. Vaughn Smith. The 10-bed villa couldn't be more different from the cramped Victorian jail where Assange has been couped up for the past nine days. Situated on a secluded 600-acre estate in east England, Ellingham Hall boasts its own sustainable farm, carp-filled lake and a basement crammed with vintage wines.

WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson noted that the property has a "fairly decent Internet connection" and told The Guardian that WikiLeaks might run some of its operations from the isolated mansion.

As long as Assange follows his bail conditions, he will next appear in court on Jan. 11, when a judge will decide whether he should be extradited to Sweden. The Australian activist is alleged to have sexually assaulted two women he met in Stockholm this summer, referred to in court documents as Miss A and Miss W. He is accused of having unprotected sex with Miss A, despite her insistence that he use a condom. Assange is also accused of having unprotected sex with Miss W while she was asleep.

He denies the charges and has said they stem from a dispute over "consensual but unprotected sex." His lawyer, Mark Stephens, has claimed that the allegations are politically motivated. He also argues that the attempt to extradite Assange to Sweden could be a precursor to moving him to the U.S., which has been angered by his organization's recent release of hundreds of secret diplomatic cables.

Swedish authorities deny Stephens' claim, saying they are only interested in securing justice for the two women. "It's an ongoing investigation in Sweden and the prosecutor needs to interrogate him to make a decision on the matter," Karin Rosander, a spokeswoman for the Swedish prosecution agency, told The Guardian.

Meanwhile it emerged today that Assange could soon be facing a separate extradition order from the U.S. Officials are now trying to determine whether Assange actively encouraged Pfc. Bradley Manning -- believed to be the source of WikiLeaks' Iraq and Afghanistan war logs, as well as the recent release of U.S. diplomatic dispatches -- to supply his site with classified information, The New York Times reports.

If Assange tapped Manning for secret documents, the Justice Department believes it will be able to charge him as a co-conspirator in the leak rather than a passive recipient who simply published the documents. Prosecutors reportedly are keen to follow that path instead of seeking charges under the U.S. Espionage Act of 1917 in order to make an example of him and avoid awkward constitutional questions, such as why they're prosecuting only Assange and not traditional news organizations that also published the leaked documents.

Investigators are now searching for evidence in chat logs in which Manning claimed to have directly communicated with Assange, the Times reported.

WikiLeaks has responded to this move by attempting to distance itself from the suggestion that it actively encourages whistle-blowers to pass on classified information. It has altered text on its submissions page to read, "WikiLeaks accepts a range of material, but we do not solicit it."

The website is also trying to portray itself as a news organization, which would make it easier to invoke the First Amendment as protection. It changed a statement on its site that previously declared, "Submitting confidential material to WikiLeaks is safe, easy and protected by law" to read, "Submitting documents to our journalists is protected by law in better democracies."