WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, arrested in Britain on Swedish allegations of sex crimes, was granted bail by a British court today.
Judge Howard Riddle granted him bail with conditions until another hearing on January 11th.
However, Mr Assange remains in custody tonight after Swedish prosecutors appealed against a decision to grant him bail.
The Australian (39), whose website has provoked US fury by publishing some of a trove of 250,000 classified US diplomatic papers, was accused this year of sexual misconduct by two female Swedish WikiLeaks volunteers during a stay in Sweden.
Mr Assange denies the allegations and is fighting Swedish attempts to extradite him.
Ahead of today's hearing in London, he remained defiant, telling his mother from a British prison cell that he was committed to publishing more secret US cables.
"My convictions are unfaltering. I remain true to the ideals I have expressed. This circumstance shall not shake them," Mr Assange said, according to a written statement of his comments supplied to Australia's Network Seven by his mother Christine.
"We now know that Visa, Mastercard, Paypal and others are instruments of US foreign policy," he said. "I am calling for the world to protect my work and my people from these illegal and immoral attacks."
Mr Assange handed himself in to British police last week after Sweden issued a European arrest warrant.
He has rejected the allegations of sexual misconduct by two female Swedish WikiLeaks volunteers and opposes attempts by Swedish authorities to extradite him for questioning.
His lawyers are due to return to court in London later today to make a new application for bail after Mr Assange was remanded in custody at an initial hearing last week.
Internet activists launched "Operation Payback" last week to avenge WikiLeaks against those perceived to have obstructed its operations, temporarily bringing down the websites of credit card firms Visa and MasterCard, as well as that of the Swedish government.
Mr Assange's British lawyer, Mark Stephens, suggested however that Mr Assange disagreed with the cyber attacks.
"When I told Julian about the cyber attacks ... he said 'Look, I've been subject to cyber attacks. I believe in free speech, I don't believe in censorship and of course cyber attacks are just that'," he told Sky News.
Mr Stephens said Mr Assange was on "twenty-three-and-a-half hour lockdown" in prison.
"He is in isolation. He doesn't have access to newspapers or television or other news devices. He is not getting mail, he is subject to the pettiest forms of censorship," he said, adding that he expected a decision on bail later.
Mr Assange and his lawyers have voiced fears that US prosecutors may be preparing to indict him for espionage over WikiLeaks' publication of the documents, which have embarrassed the United States and other countries.
The US justice department has been looking into a range of criminal charges, including violations of the 1917 Espionage Act, that could be filed in the WikiLeaks case.
A ComRes poll of 2,000 Britons for CNN, published today, found 44 per cent believed that the sex allegations against Mr Assange were an excuse to get him into custody so the United States could prosecute him for releasing the secret papers. The same proportion believed Britain should send Mr Assange to Sweden to face questioning.