Reuters
Costas Pitas and Andy Bruce3 hrs ago
© AP Photo/Frank Augstein WikiLeaks
founder Julian Assange is seen on a screen as he addresses the media from the
London embassy of Ecuador Friday Feb. 5, 2016, where he has been holed up for
some 3½ years to avoid extradition…
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange called on
Britain and Sweden on Friday to let him freely leave the Ecuadorian embassy in
London after a U.N. panel ruled he had been arbitrarily detained and should be
awarded compensation.
Assange, a computer hacker who enraged the United
States by publishing hundreds of thousands of secret U.S. 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 U.N. 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 U.N. panel's decision.
"We have today a really significant victory that
has brought a smile to my face," Assange said. "It is now the task of
the states of Sweden and the United Kingdom ... to implement the (U.N.)
verdict."
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.
"The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
considers that the various forms of deprivation of liberty to which Julian
Assange has been subjected constitute a form of arbitrary detention," the
group's head, Seong-Phil Hong, said in a statement.
"(It) maintains that the arbitrary detention of
Mr Assange 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."
Ecuador's foreign minister, Ricardo Patino, said
Assange must be allowed to go free. "What more do they want to be accused
of before they start to rectify their error?" he told South American
broadcaster Telesur, in reference to Britain and Sweden. Patino said Ecuador
was analysing its next steps.
NO CHANGE
The decision in his favour marks the latest twist in a
tumultuous journey for Assange since he incensed Washington with leaks that
laid bare often highly critical U.S. appraisals of world leaders from Vladimir
Putin to the Saudi royal family.
In 2010, the group released over 90,000 secret
documents on the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan, followed by almost
400,000 U.S. military reports detailing operations in Iraq. Those disclosures
were followed by release of millions of diplomatic cables dating back to 1973.
The U.N. 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.
High-profile cases submitted to the U.N. panel include
that of jailed former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed and of Washington Post
reporter Jason Rezaian, an Iranian-American jailed in Iran until a prisoner
swap last month.
But governments have frequently brushed aside its
findings such as a ruling on Myanmar's house arrest of opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi in 2008, a call in 2006 for the Iraqi government not to hang former
dictator Saddam Hussein, and frequent pleas for the closure of the U.S.
military prison at Guantanamo Bay.
"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 U.N. decision had no
formal impact on the rape investigation under Swedish law. A U.S. Grand Jury
investigation into WikiLeaks is ongoing. (Additional reporting by Johan
Ahlander and Simon Johnson in Stockholm, Tom Miles in Geneva, Alexandra Ulmer
in Caracas; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge, Editing by Alison Williams)
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