Julian Assange supporters fight to recover £140,000 bail posted for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the embassy Speaking at Westminster Magistrates Court, Frontline Club owner Vaughan Smith, who allowed Assange to stay at his home in Norfolk, Ellingham Hall, for more than a year, said the sureties were powerless to act. Speaking on behalf of the nine-strong group, he added: "Should I, or any other sureties, publicly urge Mr Assange to abandon the Ecuadorian Embassy it would undoubtedly be reported in the press either in a manner to discredit him, or to discredit us. It would undermine Mr Assange, but we don't believe it would do anything to extract him from the Ecuadorian embassy. It would certainly be a very public betrayal and in our view, importantly, it would also betray the public. He revealed that the sureties had visited Assange at the embassy and been told that he has received a number of threats from the Pentagon, adding that senior US figures "have called for his assassination and demonised him as a terrorist or traitor." He said the sureties were "wholly blameless" and had "worked assiduously" to help Assange meet the court's requirements, including in his case, driving him to answer police bail 400 times. "We never envisaged when we agreed to become sureties that the matter would become a diplomatic argument and it is clear that this needs to be resolved at a government level," he added. Professor Tricia David, Lady Caroline Evans, Joseph Farrell, Sarah Harrison, Philip Knightly, Sarah Saunders, Sir John Sulston, Tracy Worcester and Mr Smith each pledged sureties of between £5,000 and £20,000. Following his arrest in December 2010, Assange was freed under strict bail conditions designed to ensure he cooperated with the judicial process. At the time he walked into the embassy, those included requirements to live and sleep at the home of Sarah Saunders in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, and to observe a 10pm to 8am curfew monitored by an electronic ankle tag. All nine are now fighting against a move for them to lose that money. It is very difficult to see how we could have prevented Mr Assange from seeking political asylum,' said Mr Smith. He says he did not tell us of his decision because to do so would have placed us in legal difficulty. 'We don't see how justice is served by punishing us for having done our best to serve the public interest in this complex and challenging case.' Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, granted Assange 'diplomatic asylum' in August and said the Wikileaks founder could remain at its London embassy 'indefinitely'. Mr Smith, a retired captain in the British Army, said the sureties 'cannot disregard the risk to Mr Assange should he leave the embassy.' He may end up in the United States prison system under unjust conditions as a result. He added the US government had 'continued to make threats' against Assange and Wikileaks. 'Mr Assange is convinced that he faces serious risks in US custody and that it was necessary to apply for political asylum to a country that was not in a military relationship with the United States,' he said. In the United States many senior figures have called for his assassination and demonized him as a terrorist or traitor. District Judge Howard Riddle reserved judgement until a date yet to be fixed.