WikiLeaks' Assange given conditional bail

Julian Assange, the founder of whistleblower website WikiLeaks, has been given conditional bail just a week after he was arrested over rape allegations in Sweden. Assange will remain in custody to allow an appeal by the prosecution to be heard by the High Court over the next 48 hours.

Protesto em apoio ao fundador do WikiLeaks em Nova York. Reuters/Brendan McDermid

Assange has been detained in the UK since 7 December after surrendering to British police after Sweden issued a European arrest warrant.

His arrest came shortly after his website started releasing tens of thousands of leaked US diplomatic cables, in a move that has infuriated Washington.

Swedish authorities want to question Assange over allegations of rape and molestation made against him by two women in relation to incidents during his visit there in August.

Assange denies the allegations and his lawyers have condemned them as politically motivated.

At a hearing last week, Assange was refused bail as he was deemed a flight risk.

Support for Assange since his arrest has been mounting, including that from computer hackers who targeted companies that withdrew their commercial services from WikiLeaks, such as Amazon and PayPal.

Assange, who is in solitary confinement, on Tuesday blasted Visa, MasterCard and PayPal for blocking donations to his website, in a statement from behind bars to Australian television.

"We now know that Visa, MasterCard and PayPal are instruments of US foreign policy. It's not something we knew before," he said in a statement to Channel 7 dictated to his mother Christine Assange for the station.

"I am calling on the world to protect my work and my people from these illegal and immoral acts," he said.