Britain rejects UN working group ruling on WikiLeaks founder

An allegation of rape is still outstanding and a European Arrest Warrant in place, so the United Kingdom continues to have a legal obligation to extradite him to Sweden.

“What right does this government, or the U.S. government, or the Swedish government have to deny my children their father?” he said below the yellow, blue and red Ecuadorian flag.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange must be allowed to go free from the Ecuadorian embassy in London following a United Nations panel ruling calling for that on Friday, the South American country’s Foreign Minister said.

At the beginning of Assange’s arbitary detention, I said that the detention was in violation of the rights of asylum and is akin to the Soviet Government’s refusal to allow Cardinal Mindszenty free passage from the US Embassy in Hungary when he was granted political asylum by the US government. The WGAD has the mandate to investigate allegations of individuals being deprived of their liberty in an arbitrary way or inconsistently with worldwide human rights standards, and to recommend remedies such as release from detention and compensation, when appropriate.

She said the panel’s decision is “insulting and offensive” toward her client and the rights of all crime victims, and that it is “important to remember that Assange had violated the law and is willfully defying the courts’ decisions”.

The UN panel said Assange’s detention should end and that he should be able to claim compensation from Britain and Sweden.

Sètondji Roland Adjovi is on the five-person panel. “This is frankly a ridiculous finding by the working group and we reject it”, the foreign secretary added.

Sweden said it has no such plans.

British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) denied that Assange has been arbitrarily detained by Britain, and threatened to formally contest the opinion of the UN Working Group.

He also said he feared being sent to the USA to face an espionage case over WikiLeaks’ release of top-secret military and diplomatic documents.

WikiLeaks’ activities – including the release of 500,000 secret military files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq – have infuriated the US. “It countered that Assange was “voluntarily avoiding lawful arrest by choosing to remain in the Ecuadorean embassy.”Karin Rosander, spokeswoman for the Swedish Prosecution Authority, said that under Swedish law the panel’s conclusion will have no “formal impact”.

Britain spent over £10 million (12 million euros, $15 million) maintaining a 24-hour guard outside the embassy to immediately arrest Assange if he set foot on British soil, but withdrew it a year ago. The Assange case has polarised opinion in Britain and there were many criticisms of his conduct Friday – some serious, others more light-hearted.