Following a brief court appearance for a procedural hearing in his fight against extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted in a sex-crimes inquiry, Julian Assange vowed that his website WikiLeaks will continue "unabated."
The 39-year-old founder of the whistle-blowing website arrived for the ten-minute hearing in London with his lawyer Mark Stephens on Tuesday.
Dressed in a dark suit and navy tie, the silver-haired Australian posed for photographs on his way into the high-security Woolwich Crown Court, but he did not speak to reporters.
Once inside, Assange only spoke to confirm his identity and address.
On his way out, however, Assange announced he was happy with the day's events, and promised that the recent slowdown in the tide of leaks from his website will soon change.
"We are stepping up our publishing for matters related to Cablegate and other materials," Assange said. "Those will shortly be occurring through our newspaper partners around the world -- big and small newspapers and some human rights organizations."
He did not answer questions.
Reporting from the British capital, CTV's London Bureau Chief Tom Kennedy said the brief appearance is nevertheless attracting enormous interest, including scrutiny of the decision to move the hearing from a downtown London courtroom to the facility Thamesmead court built adjacent to the maximum security Belmarsh prison.
"It's normally a court that is used for terrorism cases. In fact, Julian Assange's lawyer is arguing that the authorities are trying to present him as a very dangerous man," Kennedy explained. Officials counter that the crush of media and public interest in Assange prompted the move.
Assange, who has been confined to the country estate of ex-soldier, frontline journalist and media club founder Vaughan Smith since he was released following his arrest in December, is due back in court for the full two-day extradition hearing that begins on Feb. 7.
The judge on Tuesday agreed that Assange could stay at Smith's Frontline Club in London during the full hearing.
WikiLeaks grabbed the world's attention late last year, when it began publishing classified U.S. diplomatic cables, intelligence files and even videos that have served to embarrass the White House and its allies.
Speculation that American prosecutors are trying to build a criminal case against the site and its operators has been spurred by subpoenas from the U.S. attorney's office in Alexandria, Va. demanding Twitter hand over account details for Assange and Pfc. Bradley Manning, the Army intelligence analyst suspected of supplying WikiLeaks with its reams of secret documents.
"This is the first real concrete sign that there is a criminal investigation going on in the States," Kennedy said. "It is suspected, certainly among people connected to WikiLeaks, that there is a secret grand jury investigation in the U.S. looking into possible espionage charges that could be laid against Assange."
In a statement released early Tuesday, WikiLeaks suggested the site and its founder were being unfairly singled out.
WikiLeaks said its staff has been subject to "unprecedented violent rhetoric by U.S. prominent media personalities," naming former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin as one of those who called for Assange to be hunted down like a terrorist.
