Despite being granted bail from a British court in London today, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange remains in prison where he will be held for at least another 48 hours.
Swedish prosecutors appealed Magistrate Howard Riddle’s decision to release Assange under strict conditions – including wearing satellite tracking tags and reporting to local police every day – and will take their case to the British High Court.
Crikey’s roving political correspondent Guy Rundle was there, mingling with European journalists and wading through the court room chaos while live-tweeting a blow-by-blow account of the day’s dramatic proceedings. Here are his tweets, which began around 11pm EDT.
10:50pm: Crikey’s Guy Rundle is outside magistrates court for Assange’s next appearance. Stay tuned…
11:12pm: Rundle here, tis noon in the UK. World’s press scrumming into court for Assange hearing.
11:19pm: Assange to appear at 2pm, chaos in corridors, press in revolt
11:21pm: European press the worst. Like Vienna after WW2. Spivs and hookers.
11:34pm: Press masquerading as general public, trying to look normal. Failing.
11:42pm: Christine Assange just appeared in building.
11:47pm: ‘where do you live’, Russian journo is asked. ‘Cancer Rise’. She means Kensal Rise but right the first time.
12:09am: Great camaraderie among journos in public queue – blitz spirit.
12:18am: Tall blondes pushing in queue for court. High school redux.
12:28am: Assange speaks from cell – visa, paypal etc are puppets of state. Always with the puppets…
12:35am: Bianca Jagger in the house.
12:40am: Geoffrey Robertson arrives, can’t get in, pounds on door theatrically.
12:42am: Phones switched off inside now, tune in for more later.
2:49am: Assange must live at the country house of Vaughan Smith, @frontlineclub founder
2:52am: Hanif Kureishi says that the moral of the story is: don’t have sex in Sweden.
2:54am: Tariq Ali denounces security tag conditions as absurd.
3:00am: Crowd outside goes wild but it’s just someone with grey hair leaving.
4:05am: £200k cash needed for bail, Assange’s lawyer says send money to Westminster magistrate’s court.
4:06am: “Prosecution becoming a persecution”, says Assange’s lawyer Mark Stephens.
4:06am: Can confirm Swedish govt not appealing bail. Assange free when cash is delivered to court.
4:28am: Confusion reigns: we’re hearing that the Swedes will appeal within 48 hours.
5:44am: Confusion and reversal – Swedes have appealed. Assange on remand. Court of appeal hearing Thursday.
7:29am: Swedes definitely appealing Assange bail. Reversal denied by sources, claim miscommunication between them and CPS
OK, I’m going to say it.
It appears the case against Julian Assange has more holes than a block of Swiss cheese.
Assange’s lawyer called it a “show trial” and this is correct. For charges that are dubious at best look at the bail conditions: 200 000 pounds and a curfew. And then the Nordic Nazis–once they got orders from their Amerikan bosses–sent him back to gaol until they can appeal. I note the 7:29am post refers to Amerika North as “wedes”. It should be “weeds”.
We need to stop thinking that the case against Julian Assange is about his alleged misconduct against two women. Sadly they are being misused as the front for economic politics to silence and suffocate their lies.
If Assange has committed the alleged offenses then let him have the same rights as any other. So far this seems like one of the greatest farces ever attempted and we must not let it pass. Acountable actions work for all and the “economic & political have and have more’s” are not exempt at the expense of anyone else.
It’s very clear this is really a vicious political stunt, the man has not even been charged with any crime but is merely wanted to answer some questions.
Maximum security and isolation? What the fuck for?
Sweden’s right wing government has truly lost the plot.
In the broader scheme of things, Assange’s circumstances are a product of a structural transformation of social and state information systems generally, which he has chosen to accelerate.
The press (the 4th Estate) arose when technology for mass information distribution became “cheap” but not cheap enough to be “free”, and its stability and pseudo-independence in the face of state power was possible due to the mediating effect of its customers, that is, businesses wishing to advertise. The constant tensions between state, business and people, were sufficient to create something like a Lagrange point in which an objective and truth seeking press could develop and mature. And with the costs of publishing still being non-trivial, it was only possible for a limited number of narratives to be supported, creating potential for strong societal consensus(es).
The problem is this stable point no longer exists, thanks to the gradual lowering of costs for mass information distribution. Initially the audience and consensus fragmented as traditional media proliferated its channels to market – but an inflection point was achieved with global rollout of broadband – at that point broad information distribution truly did become “free”.
Now the social information system is a “many to many” network rather than a “few to many” network, and the business case for the objective 4th Estate press corp has disappeared.
It is into this vacuum that Wikileaks has plunged, distributing sensitive state and business data as did its 4th estate progenitors, but without the privilege of carefully cultivated and organically evolved patronage; not from the state, which in the past would sometimes support investigation of business, and not from business which would sometimes provide support for investigation of the state. And so far, not much support from the public either. But it does appear that as people digest what’s at stake that this is starting to change.
What is very clear however is that there is very little chance that a new steady state for social information systems will be achieved again in the near or even medium future.