Bradley Manning offered plea bargain

WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange has been released a few minutes before 6 pm (GTM) on Tuesday, after the High Court in London confirmed the decision that he is to be released on bail.

He has handed over his passport and is currently staying at the the Suffolk-based home of Vaughan Smith – the founder of the FrontLine club in west London which Assange has been using as a base for his activities before the arrest.

He is to follow strict conditions in order to remain outside of prison until the extradition hearing scheduled for January: he has to wear an electronic bracelet which will monitor his movements, obey a curfew, and report daily to the police station near the house he’s staying in.

In the meantime, the Independent reports that US authorities have offered Army Private Bradley Manning – the young Army intelligence analyst that has allegedly delivered the classified government records to WikiLeaks – a plea bargain if he attests that Assange urged him to copy those record and deliver them to the organization.

If he does, Assange will be named a conspirator in the case against Manning and would raise the US’ chances extraditing him if he gets extradited to Sweden – not to mention the chances of him ultimately being convicted. Supposedly, a grand jury has already been secretly empanelled and is waiting for the moment Assange is brought to the US to charge him with yet undefined crimes.