LONDON, (Reuters) – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has angered U.S. authorities by publishing secret diplomatic cables, was remanded in custody by a British court yesterday over allegations of sex crimes in Sweden.
Assange, a 39-year-old Australian, had earlier handed himself in to British police after Sweden had issued a European Arrest Warrant for him. Assange, who denies the allegations, will remain behind bars until a fresh hearing on Dec. 14.
He has spent some time in Sweden and was accused this year of sexual misconduct by two female Swedish WikiLeaks volunteers. A Swedish prosecutor wants to question him about the accusation.
WikiLeaks, which has provoked fury in Washington with its publications, vowed it would continue making public details of the 250,000 secret U.S. documents it had obtained.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates welcomed news of the arrest. “I hadn’t heard that but it sounds like good news to me,” Gates told reporters during a trip to Afghanistan.
At a court hearing in London, Senior District Judge Howard Riddle said: “There are substantial grounds to believe he could abscond if granted bail”.
He said the allegations were serious, and that Assange had comparatively weak community ties in Britain.
His British lawyer Mark Stephens told reporters a renewed bail application would be made, and that his client was “fine”.
“We are entitled to appeal to a higher court, to the High Court, and we are also entitled to go again in the magistrates court at another date,” he told reporters.
He said many people believed the prosecution was politically motivated, and that he would be “released and vindicated”.
But a Swedish prosecutor was cited in newspaper Aftonbladet as saying the case was not a personal matter and was not connected with his WikiLeaks work.
Assange, dressed in a navy suit and wearing an open-neck white shirt, initially gave his address in court as a PO Box in Australia. Pressed for a more precise address, he gave a street in Victoria, Australia. Australian journalist John Pilger, British film director Ken Loach and Jemima Khan, former wife of Pakistani cricketer and politician Imran Khan, all offered to put up sureties to persuade the court Assange would not abscond.
Pilger, who offered 20,000 pounds ($31,600), told the court: “These charges against him in Sweden are absurd and were judged absurd by a senior Swedish prosecutor.
“It would be a travesty for Mr Assange to go within that kind of Swedish system.”
Vaughan Smith, founder of the Frontline journalists’ club in London, said Assange had worked out of the club for the past several months. Smith said he had offered him use of the club address for his bail request.
