Just because he turned himself in doesn't mean that he wouldn't flee afterwards.
Wikileaks is in a very large part about influencing perception. Everything has a purpose. Again, someone who has been trekking around the globe because many government are after him is hardly not an escape risk.
Wouldn't his skipping bail ruin everything he's worked for and towards with Wikileaks? It just doesn't make sense to me that he's considered a flight risk.
The 'risk' would be that he would flee abroad, and last I checked England was an island.
Also, fleeing would make him look pretty bad in the eyes of many and I personally don't think he would be stupid enough to do so (that's not much of a guarantee, I'll give you that), since capture (see 'island') is almost inevitable.
I wonder if anybody has access to what those maximum penalties of the charges brought are (under Swedish law), and how they relate to being jailed pending an extradition hearing. That would be interesting because I read in one uncorroborated source that the punishment for the circumstances described is actually a fine, rather than jail time and it would seem that if that is really the case that any jail time at all (such as pending this hearing) would be excessive. If Assange fights extradition do they plan to hold him in custody during the whole time ? And if so how is that different from using this as a ploy to simply lock him up because he's a 'risk' ?
As European countries come England is the hardest to get in and out of and it's not like Julian Assange is not going to be recognized on sight by half a million people at least by now.
The boats all leave from ports where there are customs inspections, crew and captains who would all not be too happy giving shelter to a fugitive, international airports need a pass by immigration and the chunnel does too.
Lots of illegals make it in and out of Britain but they don't start off as high profile fugitives.
I think you're giving him too much credit. The best he could probably do is go to ground inside England but even that is not that simple.
No, I think you're overestimating the difficulty of leaving a country illegally, even England. Assange isn't a poor "illegal", he's a guy with money and ideological supporters.
To be pedantic, England is not an island, nor is the UK, strictly speaking (it shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland). Great Britain is an island.
Wikileaks is in a very large part about influencing perception. Everything has a purpose. Again, someone who has been trekking around the globe because many government are after him is hardly not an escape risk.