Assange should be allowed free, compensated: UN panel

A UN panel examining the case of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has ruled that he should be allowed to walk free and compensated for his “deprivation of liberty.”

The five independent rights experts, who make up the UN’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, criticized on Friday legal action against Assange by Britain and Sweden and blamed them for preventing him from leaving the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

The Geneva-based group also insisted that Assange’s detention “should be brought to an end, that his physical integrity and freedom of movement be respected, and that he should be entitled to an enforceable right to compensation.”

“Assange has been arbitrarily detained by Sweden and the United Kingdom since his arrest in London on 7 December 2010,” the legal panel noted.

The founder of the wistleblower website WikiLeaks had earlier said he would accept arrest if the panel ruled against him. Assange, an Australian national, faces extradition to Sweden where he is wanted for alleged sex assault.

Meanwhile, Assange’s lawyer Per Samuelsson said a ruling in his client’s favor meant Swedish chief prosecutor Marianne Ny would have to ask a court to lift the arrest warrant issued against the Australian activist.

Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since June 2012. The activist secured political asylum from Quito after he lost a legal battle against extradition to Sweden, where he is facing questioning over rape and sexual abuse allegations.

The activist denies the abuse accusations, describing them as a ploy to send him to the US, where he is wanted over the release of thousands of classified documents about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on his whistleblower website.

UK, Sweden reject pro-Assange ruling

Britain’s Foreign Office rejected in a statement the UN panel’s finding, saying the UK was “deeply frustrated” by the Assange case and will formally contest the ruling.

“The opinion of the UN working group ignores the facts and the well-recognized protections of the British legal system," the statement read. “He is, in fact, voluntarily avoiding lawful arrest by choosing to remain in the Ecuadorean embassy.”

Sweden adopted a similar stance and voiced opposition to the ruling in a letter to UN panel.

The UN panel does not have the right to “interfere in an ongoing case handled by a Swedish public authority,” the Swedish Foreign Ministry stated in the letter.

Karin Rosander, a spokeswoman for the Swedish Prosecution Authority, also said the call for Assange’s release “has no formal impact on the ongoing investigation, according to Swedish law.”

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