Julian Assange: UN panel calls on UK and Sweden to end 'arbitrary detention' and compensate WikiLeaks founder

Mr Assange said he expects the 'immediate return' of his passport

Assange is seeking to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faces sex allegations by two women - claims he denies (AP)

Julian Assange must be freed from “arbitrary detention” by the UK and Sweden, the United Nations has ruled.

The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said called on Swedish and British authorities to immediately end the WikiLeaks founder's “deprivation of liberty'' and compensate him.

Its findings were leaked by sources on Thursday but the official ruling was not released until Friday morning.

Demonstrators hold banners outside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, where Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is staying

The UK Government is formally contesting the findings and denied that his "voluntary" stay at the Ecuadorian Embassy constituted arbitrary detention.

But Mr Assange said he expects the “immediate return” of his passport and a stop to further attempts to arrest him.

Swedish prosecutors want to question him over allegations of rape stemming from a working visit he made to the country in 2010, when revelations made by WikiLeaks on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were reverberating around the world.

Mr Assange has consistently denied the allegations but refused to return to Sweden and eventually sought refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy in London, where he has lived since June 2012.

Making its ruling on his case, the UN’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) found the WikiLeaks founder had been “arbitrarily detained by the Governments of Sweden and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”.

The group said he was entitled to freedom of movement and an unspecified amount of compensation.

Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Bradley, was sentenced to 35 years in military prison for leaking documents, videos and cables to WikiLeaks (Reuters)

“Having concluded that there was a continuous deprivation of liberty, the Working Group also found that the detention was arbitrary because he was held in isolation during the first stage of detention and because of the lack of diligence by the Swedish Prosecutor in its investigations, which resulted in the lengthy detention of Mr Assange,” it said in a statement.

“The Working Group therefore requested Sweden and the United Kingdom to assess the situation of Mr Assange to ensure his safety and physical integrity, to facilitate the exercise of his right to freedom of movement in an expedient manner, and to ensure the full enjoyment of his rights guaranteed by the international norms on detention.”

The panel representative from Australia did not participate in the deliberations and an unidentified member disagreed with the ruling and argued that Mr Assange’s situation does not constitute detention and so falls outside of its mandate.

Video: Assange speaks from Ecuadorian embassy

On Thursday, Mr Assange said he would leave the Embassy if the panel ruled against him and accept arrest by British police.

“However, 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.

The Australian fears Sweden will extradite him to authorities in the US where he could be put on trial over the activities of the WikiLeaks website, which has published thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents.

As the Swedish investigation continued in December 2010, Mr Assange was jailed in Wandsworth Prison in isolation for 10 days and then put under house arrest for 550 days under powers granted by an international arrest warrant.

The Republic of Ecuador granted him asylum but Mr Assange has not felt able to leave its embassy, and endured “extensive surveillance by the British police”, the WGAD said.

Scotland Yard stood down the 24/7 police presence outside the building in October last year but pledged to make “every effort” to arrest Mr Assange if he left.

The UN panel found that his situation violates articles nine and 10 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, which stipulate that “no one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile” and grants people “full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal” to hear criminal charges.

Mr Assange was also found to have been held in violation of articles seven, nine, 10 and 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The findings were sent to the British and Swedish governments on 22 January but are not legally binding.

​“The statement from the Working Group has no formal impact on the ongoing investigation, according to Swedish law,” said Karin Rosander, spokeswoman for Sweden's Prosecution Authority.

Additional reporting by AP