Julian Assange Was Granted Bail

Julian Assange has been granted bail by the judge before which he appeared on Tuesday for the second time. Previously, he had been denied bail on the account that he was a flight risk.

Though he was given the opportunity to make bail, Assange will be kept under strict surveillance and monitoring conditions, and remained in custody until after Sweden officials decided whether they wanted to appeal the decision.

Sweden had two hours to appeal the decision and the Swedish lawyer said it was much likely that they would do so.

Assange will remain for another 48 hours in custody, in which time the Swedish possible appeal could be heard by Britain’s High Court.

According to one of the lawyers, the bail was set to 200,000 pounds, which is $316,000, payable before Assange could walk free.

At the hearing on Tuesday, the district judge said that if the decision remained final Assange would have to wear an electronic tag, live at a registered address, report to police each evening and observe two curfews every day, of four hours each.

A group of supporters, one of which is the famous filmmaker Michael Moore, promised to raise an amount of 240,000 pounds, but they said raising the money in cash could take some time.

Assange will appear before court again on January 11, ahead of a full hearing on February 7 and February 8.

Swedish arguments in favor of denying bail were: the fact that the accusations brought against him were serious; the fact that Assange had weak connections with Britain and should not be retained there; and that Assange had enough money to disappear.

On Tuesday, the founder of WikiLeaks had a talk with his mother, Christine Assange, for 10 minutes.