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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

Yesterday, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange said he would leave [theregister.co.uk] the Ecuadorian embassy in London to face arrest if a United Nations panel ruled against his claim that he is being "arbitrarily detained". Now, the BBC reports [bbc.com] that the UN's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has ruled in Assange's favor:

A UN panel has ruled Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is being "arbitrarily detained", the BBC understands. Mr Assange claimed asylum in London's Ecuadorean embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over sex assault claims, which he denies. The Met Police said he will still be held if he does leave the embassy. He earlier tweeted [twitter.com] he would accept arrest if the panel ruled against him, but called for his arrest warrant to be dropped if the decision went his way.

While the BBC understands the panel will find in Mr Assange's favour, Wikileaks tweeted it was waiting for "official confirmation". The UK government said it would not "pre-empt" the ruling, saying Mr Assange still faced one allegation of rape while a European Arrest Warrant remained in place. "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 Ecuadorean embassy," a spokesman added. "The UK continues to have a legal obligation to extradite Mr Assange to Sweden."

[...] The panel's decision is not legally binding on the UK or Sweden, Clive Coleman, BBC legal affairs correspondent said. Mr Assange will argue the decision is significant and adds considerable legal and moral force to the argument he is being arbitrarily detained, he said. But our correspondent added the UK government is likely to argue that Mr Assange's detention follows "an entirely lawful process".

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