The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) has ruled that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is being arbitrarily detained in London by Sweden and the United Kingdom since his arrest in December 2010.
A group of WGAD experts called on the Swedish and British authorities to stop depriving Assange of his liberty, respect his physical integrity, and grant him the right to compensation.
The committee found that the detention was arbitrary, because Julian Assange was initially held in solitary confinement in Wandsworth Prison, and because the lack of diligence by the Swedish Public Prosecutor's Office in the investigations resulted in major losses of his freedom.
Assange remains under house arrest in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, having been granted asylum by Ecuador in 2012. He was arrested in 2010 in London on a warrant from Sweden over allegations that he had raped two women while living in that country.
Assange announced yesterday that he was willing to surrender to authorities if the UN ruled that he was not being held illegally.
While today's announcement will provide relief to Assange, according to the BBC, it will not suspend the arrest warrant issued by Swedish authorities and held by British police.
