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| Britain |
| UK court grants Assange bail |
| 2010-12-17 |
| [Al Jazeera] An English court has upheld the decision to grant WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange bail after authorities challenged a previous decision. Duncan Ouseley, High Court justice, rejected the argument by prosecutors on Thursday that the 39-year-old Australian should stay in prison because there was a risk he would flee the country. "The court does not approach this case on the basis that this is a runaway from justice who seeks to avoid interrogation and prosecution," he said. Mark Stephens, Assange's lawyer, said he expected his client to be released later on Thursday or "on a worst case analysis tomorrow". "But we really do expect him to be released today. Everybody is working very hard for that," he said outside court. Bail conditions Stephens said they had raised the $316,000 bail money, put forward by a host of well-known figures including Jemima Khan, Bianca Jagger, film-maker Ken Loach and journalist John Pilger. But the judge ruled that another two sureties worth about $31,500 each were required, saying that some of the people pledging money did not know Assange very well. "The problem has been the extra money that the judge has asked for from five separate people,"Nazanine Moshiri, Al Jizz's correspondent at the court, said. "Some of these people are not in London right now, so they are trying to get them to the court to sign the release," she said. Once freed he will be required to stay at the large country estate of Vaughan Smith, founder of a London media club, in what Assange's lawyer termed "mansion arrest". Under the bail conditions set on Thursday, the website founder will be subject to an electronic tag and a curfew, move within certain boundaries and report to the police everyday. Assange's mother, Christine, welcomed the judge's decision, saying she believed that the court would do the right thing. "I had faith that the British justice system would do the right thing and that the judge would uphold the magistrate's decision. And that faith has been confirmed today," she said outside court. The High Court hearing took place two days after a magistrate's court granted him release on the conditions he would wear an electronic tag, and obey a strict curfew. Assange has been held in Wandsworth prison in south London since December 7, when he was jugged on a European arrest warrant for questioning over alleged sex crimes in Sweden. |
| Posted by:Fred |