Assange Detention Should End — UN Panel

Earlier UNs Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) said that Assanges stay at the embassy and his previous experience with the Swedish and British legal systems amounted to arbitrary detention by Britain and Sweden.

British authorities have denied Assange is being detained, noting that he has chosen for years to remain in the embassy in order to avoid arrest.

Assange told reporters via video link from the Ecuadorean embassy building in central London, where he has been holed up, that “it is now the task of the states of Sweden and the United Kingdom as a whole to implement the verdict”, which he hailed as “vindication” of his innocence.

Philip Hammond, the Foreign Secretary, called the opinion of the panel “ridiculous” and said Assange was a “fugitive of justice”.

The sex crime allegations came at the height of Assange’s fame as the founder of WikiLeaks, an organization that had made a name for itself by releasing hundreds of thousands of pages of classified government documents.

He says the decision “shows clearly that we are talking about political persecution”.

The opinion cites two flaws that it says make Assange’s detention arbitrary: His time in isolation in a British prison, and the Swedish prosecutor’s “lack of diligence” in handling the sexual misconduct allegations. The panel called on the countries to compensate Assange and allow him to move freely and safely from country to country.

The Swedish government also rejected the report, with the Swedish Prosecution Authority saying the United Nations report had “no formal impact” on its ongoing investigation.

The UK has maintained it will arrest the 44-year-old Australian should he leave the embassy – and then extradite him to Sweden, where he faces a rape claim.

Mr Assange spoke via Skype to a press conference in London, saying the United Nations report had brought a smile to his face, and insisting his detention had now been formally ruled as unlawful. One of the five members of the expert panel recused from deliberations in light of her Australian nationality.

The U.S. government has not revealed whether he has been indicted – since grand jury proceedings are secret there – but has indicated that sensitive investigations into Assange and WikiLeaks have been made.

A spokesman for the Swedish Foreign Ministry already said that the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded that Julian Assange has been arbitrarily detained “in contravention of worldwide commitments”. Assange also said Britain and Sweden can not dismiss the group’s finding simply because it hadn’t gone their way.

Adjovi said the panel operates on the authority of the U.N.-supported Human Rights Committee, which has the backing of Britain and Sweden. She said the prosecutor in charge of the case was traveling and not immediately available for comment on the decision.

Assange had said that if he lost the appeal, then he would leave his cramped quarters at the embassy in the Knightsbridge area of London, though Britain said he would be arrested and extradited to Sweden as soon as he stepped outside. As a dissent by the working group’s Ukrainian member, Vladimir Tochilovsky, points out, there is a thin basis upon which to argue that Assange is detained in the Ecuadorean embassy.