A British judge ordered Julian Assange released on 200,000 pounds ($316,000) bail Tuesday, 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 a U.K. jail following his surrender to British police over a Swedish sex-crimes warrant. He denies any wrongdoing but has refused to voluntarily surrender 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 journalists outside the entrance to the City of Westminster Magistrates' Court in London. "This is really turning into a show trial."
Lawyer Gemma Lindfield, acting for Sweden, had asked the court to deny Assange bail, arguing Tuesday 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 last month deeply angered U.S. officials 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 Tuesday.
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 Assange 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 each day in addition to putting up the bond.
Assange's mother Christine, who was flown to Britain by Australian media outlets, watched the hearing nervously from the public gallery, but gave a huge smile as the judge announced his decision.
"I just want to thank everyone who's turned up to show their support and who's taken an interest," Christine Assange said.
A number of international figures put up a total of 240,000 pounds ($380,000) as a guarantee. The supporters had offered to post bond to help secure Assange's release, his lawyer, high-profile human rights advocate Geoffrey Robertson, told the court during the hearing.
Sweden investigationAssange, wearing a dark suit with a white shirt, appeared more ashen that he did at this last appearance, . Seated and unshackled, he listened intently from a glassed-in defendant's box, .
Assange is wanted for questioning after two women accused him of sexual misconduct in separate encounters in Sweden over the summer. Lawyers for Assange say he denies the allegations and will contest Sweden's attempt to extradite him.
Riddle had initially ordered Assange to prison at a Dec. 7 hearing conducted after he turned himself in.
The WikiLeaks disclosures, which have continued unaffected since Assange was detained in prison, have offended some U.S. allies and angered its rivals. Officials in Washington claim some other countries have already curtailed their dealings with the U.S. government as a result.
'My convictions are unfaltering'Earlier, Assange spoke from his prison cell to defend himself and attack the financial companies that suspended payments to his controversial website, Australian television reported Tuesday.
Assange told his mother that he remained committed to publishing some 250,000 pages of secret U.S. diplomatic cables, despite condemnation from Washington and elsewhere.
Australia's Network Seven asked Assange to ask her son one question during a visit to his London jail: Was it worth it?
"My convictions are unfaltering. I remain true to the ideals I have expressed. This circumstance shall not shake them," said Assange, according to his mother who supplied the network with a written statement of her son's answer.
"If anything this process has increased my determination that they are true and correct."
'Illegal and immoral attacks'In his statement from jail, Assange was also critical of the major finance companies who suspended payments to his WikiLeaks site, saying, "We now know that Visa, Mastercard, Paypal and others are instruments of U.S. foreign policy. It's not something we knew before."
"I am calling for the world to protect my work and my people from these illegal and immoral attacks," he said.
Some of Assange's supporters suspect the extradition request has been motivated by WikiLeaks' decision last month to begin publishing its trove of the secret U.S. diplomatic cables, something Swedish officials have denied.
A group held a noisy protest outside the court.
"It is too much of a coincidence," said protester Alex Potterill, 33. "This is an attack on the valuable work of WikiLeaks. It is an attempt to gag a valuable source of information."
Mark Stephens, a lawyer for Assange, said Swedish authorities would clearly not spare any expense to keep Assange in jail.
"This is really turning into a show trial and we will be in court again within the next 48 hours," he told reporters.
He called Assange "an innocent man sitting in Dickensian conditions, Victorian conditions in Wandsworth jail."
The U.S. Justice Department has been looking into a range of criminal charges, including violations of the 1917 Espionage Act, that could be filed in the WikiLeaks case.
Assange and his lawyers have voiced fears that U.S. prosecutors may be preparing to indict him for espionage after WikiLeaks' publication of the cables.
Swedish chargesAt an hour-long court hearing last week, Lindfield said Assange is accused of rape, molestation and unlawful coercion.
She told the court one woman had accused Assange of pinning her down and refusing to use a condom during an encounter on Aug. 14 in Stockholm. That woman also accused of Assange of molesting her in a way "designed to violate her sexual integrity" several days later.
A second woman has accused Assange of having sex with her without a condom while he was a guest at her Stockholm home and she was asleep.
In Sweden, a person who has sex with an unconscious, drunk or sleeping person can be convicted of rape and sentenced to up to six years in prison.
Assange's Swedish lawyer, Bjorn Hurtig, claims the courts are stacked against defendants in sex cases in Sweden.
However, a 2009 European Commission-funded study found only 10 percent of sex offenses reported in Sweden result in a conviction.