WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange called on Britain and Sweden on Friday to let him freely leave the Ecuadorian embassy in London after a UN panel ruled he had been arbitrarily detained and should be awarded compensation.
Assange, a computer hacker who enraged the US by publishing hundreds of thousands of secret US diplomatic cables, has been holed up in the embassy since June 2012 to avoid a rape investigation in Sweden.
Both Britain and Sweden denied that Assange was being deprived of freedom, noting he had entered the embassy voluntarily. Britain said it could contest the decision and that Assange would be arrested if he left the embassy.
Assange, an Australian, appealed to the UN panel, whose decision is not binding, saying he was a political refugee whose rights had been infringed by being unable to take up asylum in Ecuador.
It ruled in his favour, although the decision was not unanimous. Three of the five members on the panel supported a decision in Assange’s favour, with one dissenter and one recusing herself.
Speaking via video link from his cramped quarters at the embassy in the Knightsbridge area of London, Assange called on Britain and Sweden to implement the UN panel’s decision.
Assange, 44, denies allegations of a 2010 rape in Sweden, saying the accusation is a ploy that would eventually take him to the United States where a criminal investigation into the activities of WikiLeaks is still open.
No change
The UN Working Group does not have the authority to order the release of a detainee - and Friday’s ruling in unlikely to change the legal issues facing Assange - but it has considered many high-profile cases and its backing carries a moral weight that puts pressure on governments.
“Julian Assange is a fugitive from justice. He is hiding from justice in the Ecuadorian embassy,” British foreign minister Philip Hammond said. “This is frankly a ridiculous finding by the working group and we reject it.”
Swedish prosecutors said the UN decision had no formal impact on the rape investigation under Swedish law. A US Grand Jury investigation into WikiLeaks is ongoing.
