Here are key dates in the five-year legal saga of Australian WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Advertisement
The report, adopted on December 4 a year ago and made public on Friday by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, also said that Assange should be afforded the right to compensation. “What’s the point of having a dispute-resolution mechanism, if they don’t want to comply with the outcome?”
He said if that does not happen, Mr Assange will be in the embassy “forever”.
Assange, a computer hacker who enraged the U.S. by publishing hundreds of thousands of secret diplomatic cables, has been holed up in the embassy to avoid a rape investigation in Sweden.
On Thursday, The BBC reported that the United Nations panel was going to rule that he has been “arbitrarily detained”. Ahead of the ruling Assange said if the panel ruled in his favor it would be long-awaited vindication.
As supporters of Mr. Assange gather outside the Knightbridge address of the Ecuadorian Embassy to celebrate the positive developments, it appears clear is that although the celebrated whistleblower’s liberty from forced asylum may not happen immediately, the end is within sight.
British police say they are under an obligation to arrest Assange the moment he leaves the protected turf of the embassy.
Melinda Taylor said part of his arbitrary detention has included round-the-clock covert and overt surveillance while seeking refuge at the Embassy of Ecuador in London.
He said the two countries could face “consequences” from the worldwide community if the panel’s findings were not acted upon.
A British judge rules that Assange can be extradited to Sweden.
Lawyer Jennifer Robinson said Britain “cannot uphold the law by breaking the law”. He argued that the decision of the working was a matter of settled worldwide by an global body that both the United Kingdom and Sweden helped found, and through a process that both countries participated in. But Hammond called Assange “a fugitive from justice”. “But how seriously depends on how well they present their arguments”.
An Australian member of the five-person panel had excused herself from the proceedings on the grounds that she shared the same nationality as Assange.
“We are deeply frustrated that this unacceptable situation is still being allowed to continue”, the spokesman added.
It countered that Assange was “voluntarily avoiding lawful arrest by choosing to remain in the Ecuadorean embassy”.
In its official Opinion, the Working Group considered that Mr. Assange had been subjected to different forms of deprivation of liberty: initial detention in Wandsworth Prison in London, followed by house arrest and then confinement at the Ecuadorean Embassy.
A United Nations report found that Julian Assange has been unlawfully detained, and should be released with compensation.
In 2014, he filed a complaint with the UN’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
Advertisement
August 13: Swedish prosecutors drop investigations into some of the sex allegations against Assange because of the statute of limitations; investigation into a rape allegation remains active.
