Assange has indeed been effectively detained for over five years.
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The U.S. government has not revealed whether he has been indicted – since grand jury proceedings are secret there – but has indicated that sensitive investigations into Assange and WikiLeaks have been made.
“It is a different assessment than what the Swedish authorities have made”, Roslund said, declining further comment.
Sweden and Britain may also choose to appeal the panel’s decision, a process that could take months.
She said she is relieved that the ruling is not legally binding. Those cables, in some cases, contained details of what USA diplomats were saying about other world leaders; revelations that embarrassed US officials.
The WikiLeaks founder says it is “now a matter of settled law” that he has been wrongly detained. “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.
PHILIP HAMMOND: Julian Assange is a fugitive from justice.
In an important recognition of the fact that Assange has been a victim of this process, WGAD further ordered Britain and Sweden to accord him an enforceable right to compensation.
Jennifer Robinson praised the panel’s finding that Assange has been a victim of arbitrary detention and should be freed.
Robinson said Assange has exercised his legal rights in a lawful manner.
After the decision was announced earlier today, Assange gave a press conference in which he called the verdict a, “vindication”. Fear of finding himself in the custody of the United States following a series of extraditions beginning with his extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning regarding allegations of sexual misconduct.
In 2014, the computer hacker had complained to the United Nations against the UK and Sweden that he was being “arbitrarily detained” in the Ecuadorean embassy as he could not leave its premises without being arrested.
In addition, the panel noted that Assange’s arbitrary detention “should be brought to an end” and that he “should be afforded the right to compensation”.
Many British legal observers have only disdain for the Working Group.
“We are deeply frustrated that this unacceptable situation is still being allowed to continue”.
When prosecutors decided they needed to question him about the women’s allegations, they sought an global arrest warrant for him that was issued in November, 2010.
Mr Assange said: “It is the end of the road for legal arguments by the United Kingdom and Sweden”.
Three of the five members of the U.N.’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said Assange had been “subjected to different forms of deprivation of liberty”, and they specifically cited a period in which he was held in isolation at a British prison before being freed on bail.
The authority said in a statement Thursday that the Swedish prosecutor responsible for the case is now traveling and has not had a chance to study the latest developments.
It pointed out that Sweden’s Supreme Court studied the circumstances of the case in May 2015 and decided the arrest warrant for Assange should remain in place.
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It continued, “The Working Group notes in this regard that Mr. Assange has not been granted access to any material of such which is in violation of article 14 of ICCPR”.
