Assange Released After Second British Bail Hearing

After Second Bail Order, Julian Assange Finally Freed

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was finally released this afternoon on 240,000 pounds bail, after Judge Ouseley, the second judge to hear a bail request for him in 48 hours, agreed that the whistleblower was to be released.

Assange had been held since last week on an attempted extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning. The conditions of bail require him to live at an East Anglia residence and submit to curfew, electronic monitoring, and report in daily to the police.

Sweden had provided no real evidence again his being bailed or in favor of his extradition, and Judge Riddle, the judge at the first hearing, expressed annoyance at Swedish prosecutors’ claims that evidence was “irrelevant” to the case. He had ordered Assange bailed on Tuesday, only to see his ruling face an appeal, apparently by a British prosecutor.

Assange is finally a free man, or at least as close to it as one can be while on monitoring and multiple curfews, and is reportedly thrilled to be out of the infamous Wandsworth Prison. He reports that he intends to continue his work with WikiLeaks as he fights against his extradition to Sweden, who is reportedly already in talks to send him to the United States where he faces execution for releasing embarrassing secrets.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.