Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Julian Assange, founder of the WikiLeaks website that leaked thousands of secret U.S. military and State Department documents, was denied bail by a U.K. judge at an extradition hearing over rape allegations in Sweden.
Assange, 39, will remain in custody until his next hearing on Dec. 14, Judge Howard Riddle ruled today at City of Westminster Magistrate’s Court in London. Assange told the court he will fight the extradition.
“These are serious sexual offenses,” Riddle said at the hearing. He said the case isn’t about WikiLeaks, where Assange is editor-in-chief.
WikiLeaks drew condemnation for posting classified documents on its website, including U.S. embassy communications and a military video of a July 2007 helicopter attack in Iraq that killed a Reuters television cameraman and his driver. Created in 2006, WikiLeaks receives confidential material and posts it on the Internet “so readers and historians alike can see evidence of the truth,” according to its website.
Mark Stephens, Assange’s U.K. lawyer with the firm Finers Stephens Innocent LLP in London, told reporters outside court that the bail ruling was “unfortunate.” He said that many people believe the allegations in Sweden are politically motivated.
‘Exotic Position’
“We are in the rather exotic position of not seeing any of the evidence” against Assange, Stephens said. “It’s very hard to prepare a bail application under those circumstances.” Stephens regularly represents media organizations, including Bloomberg News.
Assange was arrested “by appointment” today at 9:30 a.m. after Swedish police issued an international arrest warrant. His surrender to police followed a European warrant on one count of unlawful coercion, two counts of sexual molestation and one count of rape allegedly committed in August 2010, the police’s extradition unit said in an e-mailed statement.
Prosecutors at the hearing said some claims relate to whether Assange used condoms during sex with two women after they said he should use the protection. The alleged crimes took place in Stockholm and Enkoeping, while Assange was lecturing about the publication of classified U.S. military documents related to the war in Afghanistan.
Gemma Lindfield, a lawyer for the U.K. government, argued in court that Assange should be denied bail due to his “nomadic lifestyle.”
No Set Address
“This is somebody who is unable to provide an address that he will stay at for the proceedings,” Lindfield said at the hearing. “He is simply not cooperative in these proceedings, save for” today’s appointment at the police station, she said.
John Pilger, a journalist and documentary filmmaker, joined Jemima Khan and other celebrities at court offering to guarantee Assange’s surety.
“I have a very high regard for him,” Pilger told Riddle. “I’m here today because the charges against him in Sweden are absurd, and were judged as absurd by the chief prosecutor” until a “senior political figure intervened.”
Assange, born in Townsville, Australia, began as a computer hacker in his native country and pleaded guilty in 1996 to 24 counts of violating the Crimes Act by accessing and inserting information into computers, including those of Nortel Networks Corp. He received a fine and three years probation.
