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“I hope to continue my work and continue to protest my innocence in this matter and to reveal as we get it — which we have not yet — the evidence from these allegations,” Assange said on the steps of the High Court where he was greeted by a media scrum.
Assange and his lawyers insist that moves to extradite him from Britain to Sweden to face questioning over allegations he sexually assaulted two women are politically motivated.
Amid a hail of camera flashes, Assange thanked “all the people around the world who have had faith in me, who have supported my team while I have been away.”
The 39-year-old Australian said that by granting him bail and releasing him after nine days in London’s Wandsworth prison, the British justice system had proved that “if justice is not always the outcome at least it is not dead yet”.
The man whose website has rocked Washington by releasing thousands of classified US diplomatic cables said his time in solitary confinement in the prison had helped him mull over the plight of detainees around the world.
“Those people also need your attention and support,” he said, as a handful of delighted supporters chanted “Julian, Julian, out, out, out.”
His release had been delayed by several hours, apparently by haggling over the availability of the 240,000-pound (283,000-euro, 374,000-dollar) surety which has been put up by supporters including film director Michael Moore.
A senior judge had earlier rejected an appeal by lawyers working on behalf of Sweden to keep him in jail pending extradition.
As a condition of his release, Assange will swap the stark surroundings of prison for a friend’s country mansion in Suffolk, eastern England.
He will have to report regularly to police, wear a security tag and will be under a curfew. The extradition hearings will resume next year.-AFP
Online Reporter
Peter Tanyanyiwa