A UN panel examining the case of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has ruled that he should be allowed to walk free and compensated for his “deprivation of liberty.”
The five independent rights experts, who make up the UN’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, criticized on Friday legal action against Assange by Britain and Sweden and blamed them for preventing him from leaving the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
The Geneva-based group also insisted that Assange’s detention “should be brought to an end, that his physical integrity and freedom of movement be respected, and that he should be entitled to an enforceable right to compensation.”
“Assange has been arbitrarily detained by Sweden and the United Kingdom since his arrest in London on 7 December 2010,” the legal panel noted.