LONDON (Reuters) - Nine people who put up bail for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, including two members of the British aristocracy and a Nobel Prize winner, were ordered to pay 93,000 pounds ($150,000) on Monday after Assange took refuge in Ecuador's embassy.

The guarantors - who include Nobel prize-winning biologist John Sulston - are liable for part of the 140,000 pound bail fee they pledged, Westminster Magistrate's Court ruled.

They were given until November 6 to pay up.

Assange, whose whistleblowing website angered the United States by releasing thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables, was arrested in December 2010 on an extradition warrant from Sweden where he is wanted for questioning over allegations of rape and sexual assault made by two women.

He denies wrongdoing and says he fears that if he is extradited to Sweden he could be transferred to the United States where he could face criminal charges punishable by death.

The 41-year-old Australian broke the conditions of his bail when he entered the Ecuadorean embassy in June shortly after running out of legal options to avoid being sent to Sweden. He was later granted diplomatic asylum by Ecuador.

"Having seen and heard from the sureties, I cannot avoid taking some account of their integrity," Judge Howard Riddle said of the nine guarantors.

"I accept that they trusted Mr Assange to surrender himself as required. I accept that they followed the proceedings and made necessary arrangements to remain in contact with him," he said.

"However, they failed in their basic duty, to ensure his surrender. They must have understood the risk and the concerns of the courts.

"Both this court and the High Court assessed that there were substantial grounds to believe the defendant would abscond, and that the risk could only be met by stringent conditions including the sureties."

Vaughan Smith - one of the nine, who housed Assange for 13 months after his arrest - argued for the entire group in court last week. He had said it should pay no money at all because the case had dragged on for much longer than expected and Assange had not warned the group's members before entering the embassy.

Each guarantor must now pay between 3,500 and 15,000 pounds, having originally pledged between 5,000 and 20,000 pounds.

Three submitted details of their financial means, which were taken into consideration by the court.

"Nobody wants to lose 12,000 pounds and though my family may now live less comfortably, at least we will be able to live with ourselves," Smith told Reuters afterwards.

"We believe that we have done the right thing and have no regrets for having supported Julian Assange."

(Additional reporting by Stephen Eisenhammer; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

The UK said that if he tries to leave the embassy he will be arrested on sight they will not honor any transportation to get him out of the country, so he is in jail, yes at the embassy but jail no less, he can't leave the building. I wonder how long before he wares out his welcome.

I wonder how the nine people he stiffed are going to take their revenge on him?

Opps, maybe I should have put his under the "I wonder" thread.

River

If they start an online charity, I will contribute.

Free Julian Assange and Paolo Gabriale.

Two political prisoners of the 21st Century.

Their crime? Truth!

How many are more quietly "put away" by their enlightened authorities?

My father use to receive 1 AM phone calls from Roy Cohn as I have mentioned.

I grew up with a strong education on non lethal government oppression practices by the west.

Moi

Yes I mean it!

I wonder why Assange's latest victims were surprised. Maybe it's because he raped them only figuratively instead of literally.

Really, did they not think he was a flight risk?

He gets everything he deserves, I just hope he tries to leave the embassy and gets arrested again.

Moi, you could not be more wrong if you tried, at so many levels. He is nothing more then a pirate, a bad guy moi, not some hero and as for that Army private that will do life, he is lucky he dose not get death.

Moi, please throw your money at these two losers, but don't ever brag to me about it.

River

Julian Assange is a moron for thinking he was going to publish things that are classified, just to embarrass the US and other countries, and there would be no consequences. He is considered a spy and actually could be summarily killed. He is going to get caught and he is going to come to the US and be given a fair trial after which he will be sent to a federal prison for the remainder of his life.

Elizabeth

Yep I agree with you, by the time he gets out his nearly white hair will be snowy white.

River

Elizabeth (imported) wrote: Tue Oct 09, 2012 3:43 pm Julian Assange is a moron for thinking he was going to publish things that are classified, just to embarrass the US and other countries, and there would be no consequences. He is considered a spy and actually could be summarily killed. He is going to get caught and he is going to come to the US and be given a fair trial after which he will be sent to a federal prison for the remainder of his life.

Elizabeth

Actually, Assange is NOT a spy. He did not illegally gain the information. He did not uncover the information. He merely published what he was given. Such acts are usually protected in the USA under the Freedom of the Press act.

The Government can and does put limits on what the press can publish, HOWEVER, they cannot extend those limits to people in other countries. The USA can tell its own citizens what to publish, but not the citizens of other countries.

Assange will likely NEVER see the inside of a US prison, or benefit from the US justice system. If remanded to the USA, he will likely be labeled as a terrorist, and shipped to a place like Guantanamo Prison. He will be held WITHOUT trial, without any legal appeal, and will never see justice.

Assange has said many times, that he is willing to face justice provided the USA is actually willing to bring charges. The USA cannot do that, because he broke no laws the USA can enforce. The USA wants to treat him as an enemy combatant, and that is something that operates OUTSIDE of the law.

Riverwind (imported) wrote: Tue Oct 09, 2012 9:40 am The UK said that if he tries to leave the embassy he will be arrested on sight they will not honor any transportation to get him out of the country, so he is in jail, yes at the embassy but jail no less, he can't leave the building. I wonder how long before he wares out his welcome.

But if he leaves the embassy in a bag labeled "diplomatic mail"?

Diplomatic correspondence is not subject to controls...

Just because he is a leftist celebrity, doesn't mean he didn't commit the sexual crimes. To assume he did or didn't do it for political reasons is bullshit (see John Edwards or Bill Clinton).

As for the folks who have to pay up now, that's how it works. I don't get the defense of how long the proceedings lasted OR that he didn't tell them he was running away to foreign soil (embassy). What nonsense.

Moi, there are CHARITIES that could put money to much better use than wasting it on Assange. Donate to the Red Cross in his name. Or better yet, donate the money HERE (and I know you've graciously given in the past).

I admire Assange as I do Gabriele and Danial Ellsberg. Remember him.

These guys could have stayed silent and left to their comforts. They spoke up, with proof.

I admire them.

When people would criticize my father for working with Nazi scientist, he asked them

what they did in the McCarthy Era. My father lost all his family in WW2

yet equated a citizen's failure to stand up to McCarthyism as a Good German behavior.

The sexual charges against Assange are BS. He can be tried in Ecuador if anyone really cares.

He two timed the wrong two ladies who compared notes. And hath no fury like a scorned

I respect many feel leaking secret documents is wrong under any circumstances.

But, if there is no real secrets - just embarrassment - are they really secret documents?

Moi

FREEDOM