Assange, of Australia, is wanted for questioning by Swedish prosecutors for incidents with two women in August and faces possible charges of rape, unlawful coercion and sexual molestation. He maintains the encounters were consensual.

After Swedish authorities requested that a European Arrest Warrant be issued, Assange turned himself in to U.K. police on Dec. 7. After a week in custody, he was granted bail on the condition he turn in his passport, wear an electronic monitoring device and check in regularly with police.

His lawyers, who include high-profile attorney Mark Stephens, plan to argue that the arrest warrant was issued "for the purposes of prosecuting or punishing him for his political opinions," outlining their expected legal arguments.

Assange's legal problems intensified as WikiLeaks some of 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables leaked to the website. The release caused a furor among U.S. politicians, with former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee calling for the death penalty for those who released the cables and former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin saying Assange should be hunted down with the same urgency as al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders.