WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange claimed today that there could be an “illegal investigation” being carried out into him.
Speaking on his first day after being bailed, the 39-year-old Australian said he had not been provided with any evidence relating to claims he sexually assaulted two women.
He was let out of prison yesterday after a judge ruled he should be released ahead of Swedish extradition proceedings in the new year.
Bail conditions require Mr Assange to remain in the country until the extradition hearing next year and he is now staying at Ellingham Hall, a country retreat on the Norfolk/Suffolk border owned by Vaughan Smith, the founder of London’s Frontline club.
Speaking from the grounds of the mansion, he claimed certain institutions were “engaged in what appears to be, certainly a secret investigation, but appears also to be an illegal investigation.
“We can see that by how certain people who are allegedly affiliated with us were contained at the US border and had their computers seized, and so on.
"The risk we have always been concerned about is onward extradition to the United States, and that seems to be increasingly serious and increasingly likely," Mr Assange said.
He added: “I would say that there is a very aggressive investigation, that a lot of face has been lost by some people, and some people have careers to make by pursuing famous cases, but that is actually something that needs monitoring.
“We’ve seen the Swedish government, let’s not say the government, a Swedish prosecutor in these representations to the British government and British courts said he needed not to provide a single shred of evidence.”
Mr Assange reiterated that he had spent 10 days in solitary confinement at Wandsworth Prison, south west London, and had still not been presented with “a single piece of evidence”.
He claimed his organisation had been attacked primarily not by governments, but by banks in Dubai, Switzerland, the US and the UK and added that WikiLeaks is continuing to release information about the banks.
“Over 85 per cent of our economic resources are spent dealing with attacks, dealing with technical attacks, dealing with political attacks, dealing with legal attacks, not doing our journalism,” he said. “And that, if you like, is a tax upon quality investigative journalism.”
Mr Assange said that he had support from a “large Washington law firm” and from “colleagues in California” but called for more help. “We need more, and not just at a reactive level.”
After emerging from the High Court in London yesterday, Mr Assange had vowed to “continue his work and protest his innocence”.
PA