WikiLeaks founder hails 'sweet victory' of UN report

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has hailed a "victory of historical importance" after a UN panel ruled his stay in a London embassy amounts to "arbitrary detention".

Assange gave a statement from the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in west London, where he has been holed up since June 2012, having been granted political asylum, Sky News reported.

He thanked the UN for its ruling, adding: "How sweet it is. This is a victory that cannot be denied.

"It is a victory of historical importance, not just for me, for my family, for my children, but for the independence of the UN system," he said.

Holding up a copy of the UN report, he added: "What right do the governments of the US, UK or Sweden have to deny my children their father for five and a half years?"

He declined to answer questions from the world's media assembled outside, and then disappeared back into the embassy.

The UK has maintained it will arrest the 44-year-old Australian should he leave the embassy - and then extradite him to Sweden, where he faces a rape claim.

But the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said he was in effect being unlawfully detained and he should be granted his freedom and the right to claim compensation.

UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond branded the ruling "ridiculous" and said the campaigner is "hiding from justice".

Giving a news conference by video link from inside the embassy earlier, Assange called on the UK and Sweden to abide by the panel's decision.

He claimed the ruling was "settled law" and warned the two countries would face diplomatic consequences if they did not withdraw the threat of arrest.

Assange accused Hammond of "insulting the UN" and said: "I found those comments to be beneath the stature that a foreign secretary should express in this situation."

Seong-Phil Hong, who currently heads the UN expert panel, said earlier: "The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention considers that the various forms of deprivation of liberty to which Julian Assange has been subjected constitute a form of arbitrary detention."

Source: MENA