A United Nations panel has ruled that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been “arbitrarily detained”.
No comment was immediately available from the United Nations in Geneva, where the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has been considering a request by Assange for a ruling.
Writing on Wikileaks’ Twitter account Wednesday night, Assange said if the U.N. finds he has lost his case against the United Kingdom and Sweden then he will turn himself into police at noon on Friday.
“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,” Assange added.
Assange, 44, is wanted in Sweden for questioning over allegations of rape in 2010, which he denies. He took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London in June 2012 to avoid extradition. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange says he will accept arrest by British police if a U.N. working group on arbitrary detention decides that the three years he has spent holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy does not amount to illegal detention.
In September 2014, Assange filed a complaint against Sweden and Britain to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention claiming his confinement in the embassy amounts to illegal detention.
“The only protection he has… is to stay in the confines of the embassy; the only way for Mr. Assange to enjoy his right to asylum is to be in detention,” the submission said.
“This is not a legally acceptable choice,” it added, according to a file posted on the website justice4assange.com.
