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Updated 4.10pm
A UN WORKING Group on Arbitrary Detention has ruled that Julian Assange’s confinement in the Ecuadorian embassy in London amounts to illegal detention, Sweden’s foreign ministry said today.
“We can only note that the working panel has come to another conclusion than Swedish judicial authorities,” a ministry spokeswoman told AFP, a day before the panel was to formally publish its report.
The WikiLeaks founder, who is wanted for extradition on a rape accusation in Sweden and has lived in the embassy since June 2012, said earlier today that he expected to be treated as a free man if the panel rules in his favour.
Assange said he could leave the Ecuadorian embassy in London tomorrow pending an opinion by a UN panel on his alleged rape case — but Britain said it would have to arrest him.
In September 2014, Assange filed a complaint against Sweden and Britain to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, claiming his confinement in the embassy amounted to illegal detention.
“Should I prevail and the state parties be found to have acted unlawfully, I expect the immediate return of my passport and the termination of further attempts to arrest me,” he said in a statement today.
If the UN group rules against him he said “I shall exit the embassy at noon on Friday to accept arrest by British police as there is no meaningful prospect of further appeal”.
Arrest
The British government said it was under an obligation to arrest him in both eventualities.
“An allegation of rape is still outstanding and a European arrest warrant in place, so the UK continues to have a legal obligation to extradite Mr Assange to Sweden,” a government spokesman said.
We have been consistently clear that Mr Assange has never been arbitrarily detained by the UK but is, in fact, voluntarily avoiding lawful arrest by choosing to remain in the Ecuadorian embassy.
’A miserable existence’
The BBC reported that the UN panel would find in Assange’s favour, in what would be a non-binding decision, although WikiLeaks sent a tweet saying it was awaiting “official confirmation”.
“Hopefully, the British and Swedish authorities will allow him freedom,” Vaughan Smith, a friend and supporter of Assange, told AFP.
“He has a miserable existence, so of course he wants to get out,” he said.
The BBC report said the panel took its decision in December and had already informed both the Swedish and British governments.
The 44-year-old has been holed up in the embassy in west London since June 2012 in a bid to avoid extradition to Sweden over rape allegations, charges he has denied.
Ecuador has granted him asylum, but he faces immediate arrest if he steps onto British soil and for years police have been posted around the clock outside its doors at a cost of millions of pounds.
24-hour guard
In October last year, British police ended the 24-hour guard outside the embassy in Knightsbridge in west London but said they would strengthen a “covert plan” to prevent his departure.
Separately, the Australian fears he could eventually face extradition to the United States to be put on a trial over the leak of hundreds of thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents by his anti-secrecy group Wikileaks.
Assange founded Wikileaks in 2006, and its activities including the release of 500,000 secret military files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and 250,000 diplomatic cables have infuriated the United States.
The main source of the leaks, US Army soldier Chelsea Manning, was sentenced to 35 years in prison for breaches of the Espionage Act.
Black stain
WikiLeaks has said Sweden’s handling of his case has left a “black stain” on the country’s human rights record.
Any decision by the UN group would not be legally binding, but Justice for Assange claims its rulings influenced the release from detention of prominent figures including Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi and Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, who was held by Iran for 18 months.
A divisive figure, Assange has likened his confinement in the embassy, where he lives in a small room divided into an office and a living area, to living in a space station.
Previously he lived in the more impressive surroundings of an English country mansion owned by one of his supporters, documentary maker Vaughan Smith.
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It’s turns out that internet misinformation is far more deadly than anyone had imagined. Critical thinking should be taught at all schools from a young age.
@Simon Power: unfortunately it doesn’t matter if they teach it in schools , what they learn at home will super seed it
@Simon Power: Yes, but in America there are additional cultural, ideological, political and religious factors leading to citizens refusing the vaccines. It’s not a nation. It’s a collection of sub-societies each with their own identities.
@Simon Power: Having the internet without being able to think critically, is like having the university library without having the university, or having a Ferrari bit not knowing how to drive. The once quaint “Educated in the university of life… ” cliche is turning out to be the nightmare very few could.have envisaged.
@Simon Power: the terrible irony here is that critical thinking has been actively discouraged by the likes of you, critical thinking does not mean blind obedience to whatever the government says.
If you’re suggesting that people who refuse the vaccine are incapable of critical thinking but assert that those who took the vaccine have demonstrated critical thinking, then you are a lost cause.
We’ve had almost 2 years of this and instead of solely relying on a vaccine, we could have gotten our house in order, poor nutrition and obesity are huge contributors to covid deaths….a nationwide campaign for obese people to lose weight and everyone else to just eat better would have been a great idea.
@Dan Broderick: The type of “critical thinking” you’re talking about is the same kind of critical thinking that lead to climate change denial. Proper critical thinking allows people to evaluate what they do know as apart from what they don’t. It also tells us that there are people better placed than ourselves to make these highly specialised judgements. Your type of critical thinking is all about speculation and trawling the web for the lone voice in a thousand that agrees with your speculation. That’s not critical thinking. It’s not even logical thinking.
@Vonvonic: I clearly have too much free time today if I’m responding to you but you’re demonstrating willful ignorance here.
I recommend a multi faceted approach to dealing with Covid, a physically fit person who eats a healthy and varied diet and gets out in nature daily but declines the vaccine for whatever reason, is doing more to help themselves than an obese person who continues to eat crap, watches TV 15 hours a day but gets the vaccine.
If you’re going to ridicule a healthy person for declining the vaccine and accepting their increased risk of getting ill with Covid, then why not ridicule every fat person for actively choosing ill health through negligence?
It’s all about personal responsibility!
@Dan Broderick: Ridicule?. You don’t need to get precious Dan. We’re all grown ups on here. If you dish it, you can surely take it. Critical thinking would tell us that the vaccination program has been a huge success. It also tells us that vaccinaton is the reason we’re able to open society next week. As for diet. Everyone knows that a healthy lifestyle and a good diet are beneficial for good health outcomes. You don’t need to be an expert for that. In one breath you’re saying the government should be promoting better lifestyles and diets. On the other you’re saying that we shouldn’t believe everything the government tells us. That’s some paradox
@Simon Power: aside from misinformation you’d wonder how many of those 70 million would be taking it if it was the orange lad pushing it instead of sleepy joe. A lot, I’d wager, despite the republicans shiting on ad nauseum about the Democrats politicising the virus.
Biden really hasn’t got a handle on this at all.
@LaoisWeather: Very hard to fix stoopid
@LaoisWeather: What’s he going to do? Going around and personally vaccinated every conservative who refuses to be vaccinated? His grasp of the situation is leaps and bounds better than Trump.
The most problematic states are states with a Republican majority. They have the lowest vaccinate rates.
@LaoisWeather: far better than the mango m0r0n . Remember him? Over 500,000 died on his watch in a year. The rate of people dying has obviously slowed down!
So Biden is going at about the same death rate as Trump was.
@bread of heaven: I’d suggest looking at the political history of the deceased. There is a distinct over representation of republicans.
@bread of heaven:
Unvaccinated people are dying at the same rate as they always were.
Pity there’s no vaccine for stoopidity.
@bread of heaven: eh, no! Trump had over half a million in a year! Biden ain’t gonna get close to that.
have your say