WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Bail Set at $315k
LONDON, Dec. 14, 2010— -- Prosecutors are appealing a decision by a London judge today to grant bail to embattled Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
Assange's lawyer, Mark Stephens, said his client was "very pleased" with the London court's ruling, but said before the appeal was announced that raising the $315,000 cash bond would take "an inordinately long period of time."
"Meanwhile, an innocent man remains in jail... in Dickensian conditions," Stephens said.
A judgment on the appeal is expected within 48 hours.
Assange has been held in solitary confinement -- for his own protection, the jail said -- on sexual assault charges including rape originating out of Sweden since his arrest last week. Assange, the man who published a massive trove of classified U.S. diplomatic cables through his website, could also be the target of coming espionage charges from the U.S., one of his lawyers told ABC News last week.
If he is able to post the bond, Assange must surrender his passport and stay in the United Kingdom where he plans to stay with a friend, the London judge ruled Tuesday. He will have an electronic tag to verify that he is at that address overnight and must daily report to police.
Several supporters have offered to assist in paying Assange's bail, mincluding documentary filmmaker Michael Moore who pledged $20,000.
The timing of the arrest earlier this week led a Wikileaks spokesperson, Stephens and hundreds of Assange's supporters to claim the sex charges were part of a political effort to marginalize the Wikileaks founder in the face of the document drop, which has proved an embarrassment and potential security risk for the U.S. government.
But a lawyer for the two Swedish women accusing Assange said the charges are in no way politically motivated and the woman are angry at that suggestion.
Assange has denied the sex crimes charges and after his arrest, Stephens told ABC News Assange is ready "to vindicate himself and clear his good name."
In a jailhouse statement passed through his mother to an Australian news station, Assange reportedly said that his "convictions are unfaltering."
"I remain true to the ideals I have expressed. This circumstance shall not shake them," Assange wrote, according to Australia's 7 News. "If anything this process has increased my determination that they are true and correct."
