UPDATE: Julian Assange release from custody has been delayed pending a prosecutor's appeal, the New York Times reports. The WikiLeaks founder had been ordered released on $310,000 bail earlier in the day. The appeal will apparently be heard within 48 hours.
EARLIER: Julian Assange is out on bail.
A British judge ordered the release of the the WikiLeaks founder on $310,000 on Tuesday, a week after he was denied bail in connection with a sex crime case in Sweden, where Assange is wanted for questioning.
Assange's next court appearance is scheduled for January 11. Until then, he will be under nightly house arrest in Ellingham Hall, "a Georgian mansion in Bungay, eastern England, owned by Vaughan Smith, the founder of the Frontline Club, which is used mainly by journalists," according to the Times.
Assange will also be "electronically tagged so that police can track his movements," the judge said.
Swedish authorities said they would not challenge the British court's decision to grant Assange bail.
Filmmaker Michael Moore said he put up $20,000 of his own money to help bail out Assange.
"Furthermore, I am publicly offering the assistance of my website, my servers, my domain names and anything else I can do to keep WikiLeaks alive and thriving," Moore wrote in a post on his website, "as it continues its work to expose the crimes that were concocted in secret and carried out in our name and with our tax dollars." (You can read Moore's document that was presented in court here.)
Assange, a 39-year-old Australian citizen, was denied bail last week after turning himself in to Scotland Yard to answer questions related to alleged sex crimes in Sweden. Assange told the court that he plans to fight extradition to Sweden to face those charges.
Earlier Tuesday, Assange released a statement through his mother, who had visited him at London’s Wandsworth Prison.
"My convictions are unfaltering," Assange said, according to his mother. "I remain true to the ideals I have expressed. This circumstance shall not shake them. If anything this process has increased my determination that they are true and correct."
