WIKILEAKS memorabilia including an unopened coffee sachet smuggled out of a British prison and signed by Julian Assange, are on sale to raise funds for the cash-strapped enterprise.
A range of items are listed for sale with eBay, including the coffee sachet, for which bidding stood at $383.38 tonight after eight offers.
A blurb on the eBay sale page reads: “Scarce item of memorabilia from Julian Assange’s time in prison”.
“Julian Assange spent 10 days in prison in December 2010. When he left to go under house arrest in Norfolk he smuggled out this, one of three sachets of coffee.
“This rare item has been signed on one side: ‘Julian A, Prison coffee, smuggled out of Wandsworth Prison by me on Dec 17 2010’. On the other side of the sachet Julian has inked a fingerprint.
“The sachet is unopened and is being sold to raise money for WikiLeaks.”
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Other items available include a 13cm by 18cm signed photograph of the Australian taken on his 40th birthday in July, for which the current bid is $981.44.
“This is the only available copy of this photo of Julian Assange. It was taken by Allen Clark at Ellingham Hall where Julian is currently under house arrest,” reads the online auction site.
Assange is on bail and wears an electronic tracking device as he awaits a decision by Britain’s High Court of Appeal as to whether he will be extradited to Sweden to face allegations of sexual assault and rape against two women.
Memoirs penned by Assange and due to have been released months ago are yet to be seen, the proceeds of which were expected to have covered the Australian’s mounting legal costs.
In the meantime, WikiLeaks supporters are helping out with the eBay sale, donating items for auction.
British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood has offered two tickets to the Paris catwalk show of her Spring/Summer collection on September 30.
Bidding for the “fashion-lover’s dream” has opened at $1303.48, well short of the $12,268 sale price.
“The two tickets were personally donated by Vivienne Westwood to Julian Assange at his 40th birthday to help raise money for WikiLeaks,” the Ebay sale page reads.
Also on offer is the laptop computer “that allowed the (WikiLeaks) team to search the full set of cables and extract the cables to be sent encrypted to media organisations throughout the world.
“It lead to hundreds of front pages and was a causative element in ongoing political turmoil and reforms that are playing out as we speak.”
The laptop which is plastered with a WikiLeaks sticker, along with labels which read: “if you do anything other than database on here your team will kill you”, has attracted one bid of $9201.
The most expensive item among the WikiLeaks goods is a UN Spying cable that hit headlines when CableGate was launched, signed by Julian Assange.
“The unique cable details Hilary (Clinton) asking her diplomats to spy on UN officials requesting them to collect details of UN officers, including (secretary general) Ban Ki-moon’s DNA,” the eBay blurb reads.
Bids for the cable stand at $3220, with a sale price of $32,203.
Bidding on the WikiLeaks items remain open until later this week.