For its part, the Swedish government has countered that a decision by a United Nations panel that Assange’s freedom of movement should be restored has no formal impact on the investigation under Swedish law.
Advertisement
Mr. Assange, who faces extradition to Sweden over a rape charge, which he denies, claimed asylum in London’s Ecuadorean embassy in 2012.
Assange had said that if he lost the appeal then he would leave his cramped quarters at the embassy in the Knightsbridge area of London, though Britain said he would be arrested and extradited to Sweden as soon as he stepped outside.
So what is next for Assange?
Accusing the British Govt again, Wikileaks has stated “Another lie by the UK Government today, is that Assange was not detained and could have walked out of the embassy at any given moment”.
The U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which falls under the offices of the U.N. human rights chief, said Assange has been “arbitrarily detained” by Britain and Sweden since December 2010, when he was first sought for questioning on allegations of sexual misconduct. Hammond called Assange “a fugitive from justice”.
Sweden said it has no such plans.
Prominent human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC said the Australian government must lobby Sweden to allow Mr Assange to walk free.
Christophe Peschoux, the working group’s secretary, said at a briefing in Geneva that Britain and Sweden had two months to submit new information to force a review, and Britain says it will contest the opinion.
Swedish authorities want to speak to Assange about a rape allegation for which the statute of limitations does not expire until 2020.
He said comments by Mr Hammond were “beneath” the minister’s stature and insulting to the UN. But he will have to face justice in Sweden if he chooses to do so.
Assange has infuriated several governments, including the U.S. authorities, by disclosing hundreds of thousands of secret files concerning Iraq, Afghanistan and diplomatic cables from USA embassies around the world.
In a statement on Thursday (Feb 4), Assange said that a ruling in his favour should lead to “the immediate return [of] my passport and the termination of further attempts to arrest me”.
A hero to some and a unsafe, paranoid egomaniac to detractors, the computer programmer and hacker, whose celebrity supporters include the fashion designer Vivienne Westwood and artist Yoko Ono, founded the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks in 2006.
Advertisement
Britain has spent millions of pounds maintaining a 24-hour guard outside the embassy to immediately arrest Assange if he set foot on British soil. The Guardian newspaper, which has in the past worked with WikiLeaks to publish secret documents, used an editorial to condemn the latest developments as “a publicity stunt”.
