WIKILEAKS’ FOUNDER JULIAN ASSANGE spent last night in jail after a UK court refused to grant the Australian bail.
The judge said he was a flight risk, according to the Telegraph.
Assange faces extradition to Sweden over sexual assault allegations made against him by two women in Sweden. Before he met with UK authorities yesterday, his lawyers said he would fight extradition efforts.
The extradition case could take months. Supporters of Assange including filmmaker Ken Loach and journalist John Pilger offered £180,000 in surities, but bail was denied.
Despite Assange’s claims that the Swedish complaints are related to his controversial site, a lawyer for both alleged victims says that the allegations are not connected with WikiLeaks, and that Assange is lying when he says they are part of a US-led conspiracy.
Reuters reports that initially, the two women involved wanted Assange to take an STD test. The women allegedly contacted police after becoming exasperated at Assange’s elusiveness.
Swedish prosecutors later issued, then dropped, a warrant for his arrest on rape and molestation charges last August. The women then hired a lawyer who said he’d push to reinstate the charges. A European arrest warrant was issued after Assange had left the country because Swedish prosecutors want to question him, but have not charged him, Reuters reports.
Assange’s detention comes as WikiLeaks endures increased pressure to close down. Late last week, PayPal suspended its WikiLeaks donations account service, and yesterday MasterCard and Visa suspended all payments through them to the website. A hacking group has apparently taken Mastercard.com down in response, according to Business Insider.
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