Julian Assange has emerged triumphant from custody in London, more than four hours after the British High Court upheld bail with tight conditions, including electronic tagging.
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As he stepped through the doors of the British High Court on the dot of 6pm to thunderous cheers, he stopped on the steps, smiled and said it was “great to smell the fresh air of London again”.
Dressed in dark suit and collared white shirt, Assange looked pale but elated and defiant, immediately thanking his supporters worldwide, as well as his legal team, led by Australian QC, Geoffrey Robertson.
He expressed gratitude to “all the people around the world who have supported me and my team while I’ve been away, to my lawyers who put up a brave and ultimately successful fight and those who provided sureties and who provided money in face of great difficulty”.
He also thanked members of the press who “dug deeper in their work” and the British justice system “where if justice is not always an outcome at least it is not dead yet.”
With a deep breath, he said that during his time “in solitary confinement in the bottom of a Victorian prison I had time to reflect on the conditions of those people around the world also in solitary confinement, also on remand in conditions that were more difficult than those faced by me. Those people also need your attention and support,” he said.
“I hope to continue my work and continue to protest my innocence in this matter as we reveal the evidence from these allegations. Thank you.”
Mr Assange, whose bail was upheld around 3pm in the afternoon London time, will now be driven to Ellingham in the Norfolk countryside, a 10-room manor house owned by former military man turned journalist adventurer, Vaughan Smith, who is also cofounder of London’s Frontline Club.
The delay in his release was sparked by confusion over the payment of sureties as a who’s who of freedom of speech campaigners – from Nobel Prize winners to British peers, ex Ministers of the Crown – and two Australians, Sir Philip Knightley and millionaire publisher Felix Dennis - visited police stations and magistrates’ courts to pay their cash but encountered officers ignorant of procedure.
Felix Dennis, a protagonist in the famous Oz obscenity trial in London and now one of Britain’s richest men, attempted to pay his surety at Stratford only to be told the police station didn’t know how, a source said.
Earlier in the day, the British Crown Prosecution Service appealed a decision made on Tuesday by a Westminster magistrate to allow bail with £240,000 bail and surety, tagging, daily signing in with police and confinement to Ellingham Hall. The lawyer, Gemma Lindfield, argued that Assange's wealthy supporters were offering surety for a cause, not because they could vouch for him.
Among those who have paid surety are a former Labour Minister, Lord Matthew Evans, Nobel Prizewinning scientist Sir John Sulston, Professor Patricia David, as well as campaigners and film makers Michael Moore and Ken Loach.
A moment of hilarity occurred when the Judge refused to accept veteran journalist John Pilger as he was just another Australian WikiLeaks supporters, prompting a chide of racism from Geoffrey Robertson QC.
Assange is fighting attempts to extradite him to Sweden for questioning over allegations he denies of sexual misconduct, including rape, made by two female WikiLeaks volunteers.
"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 said yesterday.
