Sweden opposes bail for WikiLeaks founder

LONDON - A British judge ordered Julian Assange released on $316,000 bail yesterday, but the WikiLeaks founder will remain in custody for at least two more days after Swedish prosecutors challenged that decision.

Assange has spent a week in jail following his surrender to British police over a Swedish sex-crimes warrant. He denies any wrongdoing but has refused to surrender voluntarily to Sweden's request to extradite him for questioning, arguing that he could be questioned from Britain.

In a day of courtroom drama, the 39-year-old Australian was first told by a judge that he would be freed, then less than two hours later was informed he had at least another 48 hours in custody.

Britain's High Court will hear the Swedish appeal, but it wasn't clear exactly when.

"They clearly will not spare any expense to keep Mr. Assange in jail," his lawyer, Mark Stephens, told reporters outside the City of Westminster Magistrates' Court. "This is really turning into a show trial."

Lawyer Gemma Lindfield, acting for Sweden, had asked the court to deny Assange bail, arguing yesterday that the allegations against him were serious, that he had only weak ties to Britain and that he had "the means and ability to abscond." Reminding the court that it had already labeled Assange a flight risk, she argued that "nothing has changed since last week to allay the court's fears in this regard."

She also rejected attempts to link Assange's case with the work of WikiLeaks, which deeply angered U.S. officials last month by beginning to publish its trove of 250,000 secret U.S. diplomatic cables.

"This is not a case about WikiLeaks, rather a case about alleged serious offenses against two women," Lindfield told the court.

Celebrity supporters in the court, including socialite Jemima Khan and actress Bianca Jagger, and hundreds of pro-WikiLeaks protesters outside the building cheered at District Judge Howard Riddle's decision to grant bail.

Under the ruling, Assange must wear an electronic tag, stay at a specific address in southern England, report to police every evening and observe two four-hour curfews daily in addition to putting up the bond.