WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange yesterday urged Britain and Sweden to let him walk free from Ecuador’s embassy in London after a UN panel found that the anti-secrecy campaigner was “arbitrarily detained.”
Addressing a press conference via video link from the embassy, where he sought refuge in June 2012 and was later granted asylum, Assange hailed a “significant victory which has brought a smile to my face”.
“It is now the task of the states of Sweden and the United Kingdom as a whole to implement the verdict,” the 44-year-old Australian told a packed room of journalists in the capital.
His comments came after a UN panel said Assange’s detention should end and that he should be able to claim compensation from Britain and Sweden, where he faces questioning over a rape allegation.
But both countries quickly dismissed the non-binding legal opinion, with Britain’s Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond calling it “ridiculous”.
Assange walked into the embassy in June 2012 to avoid the threat of arrest and extradition to Sweden.
He has lived there ever since in a small office room with a bed, computer, sun lamp, treadmill and access to a small balcony decorated with Ecuador’s flag.
In a statement, the panel said it had adopted an opinion that considered Assange “arbitrarily detained by the governments of Sweden and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.”
It added: “The working group also considered that the detention should be brought to an end and that Assange should be afforded the right to compensation.”
Assange’s legal representative Baltasar Garzon called it “one of the strongest judgements” ever issued by the body.
But Britain and Sweden sharply condemned the panel’s findings and said they would change nothing.
Hammond called Assange “a fugitive from justice.”  “This is frankly a ridiculous finding by the working group and we reject it,” the foreign secretary added.
Sweden’s foreign ministry said that it “does not agree” with the assessment.
“Assange is free to leave the embassy at any point and Swedish authorities have no control over his decision to stay at the embassy,” the ministry added.
Only three of the five members of the UN panel supported the opinion - one recused herself because she is Australian, like Assange, and another member disagreed.
“It is very unusual that there is a decision not based on consensus,” said Christophe Peschoux, the working group’s secretary, at a briefing in Geneva.
He said that Britain and Sweden had two months to submit new information to force a review, and the government said yesterday it would “formally contest” the opinion.
However, Ecuador Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said it was “time for both governments... to allow Julian Assange his freedom.”
Swedish authorities want to speak to Assange about a rape allegation whose statute of limitations does not expire until 2020.
Elizabeth Fritz, the lawyer for the woman who has accused Assange of rape, criticised the UN ruling.
“That a man who is wanted on an arrest warrant for rape should be awarded compensation for intentionally hiding from the judicial system for more than five years is offensive to my client,” she said.
Swedish judicial authorities said last month that Ecuador had refused its request to let a Swedish prosecutor question Assange because Quito wanted an Ecuadoran prosecutor to do the questioning.
Assange fears that if he went to Sweden, he could then be sent to the US and face prison.
WikiLeaks’ activities - including the release of 500,000 secret military files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - have infuriated the US. The main source of the leaks, US army soldier Chelsea Manning, was sentenced to 35 years in prison for breaches of the Espionage Act.
Britain has spent over £10mn maintaining a 24-hour guard outside the Ecuador embassy to immediately arrest Assange if he set foot on British soil, but withdrew it last year.