Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in London's Ecuadorian embassy in 2012.
Iwona Abessolo/Flickr Vision/Getty
Julian Assange said the United Nations ruling that he has been "arbitrarily detained" during his stay in an Ecuadorian embassy "brought a smile to my face."
"I consider the outcome in this case to be vindication," the 44-year-old WikiLeaks founder told joualists on Friday via a video webcast. "It is now the task of the United Kingdom and Sweden to implement the verdict."
The ruling would seem to give Assange the legal backing to freely leave the embassy, where he has been holed up for three and a half years after claiming asylum in 2012 to avoid arrest and extradition to Sweden. Assange fears he could then be sent to the US to face prosecution for leaking classified govement documents. But the UK govement said the situation hasn't changed, and Assange would still be arrested. He didn't comment on whether he would walk out of his refuge.
His press conference comes after the UN human rights tribunal said he was entitled to both freedom of movement and to compensation for his time in exile. His legal team described this as a "resounding victory."
Assange's legal team gathered for the press conference in London's Frontline Club, a members club for joualists and media professionals. Decorated with images of investigative and combat joualism -- including items that have stopped bullets to save the lives of joualists -- the Frontline is owned by Assange's friend and advocate Vaughan Smith. A livestream of the conference is available on YouTube.
Threatened with arrest if he stepped outside the small embassy building in London's fancy Knightsbridge area, Assange has been confined to a converted office with a bed, shower, treadmill and sunlamp. Before that he was under house arrest and also spent a brief period in prison. But the British govement maintains that Assange has been in self-imposed exile in the embassy, avoiding lawful arrest after his extradition case went through the British legal system.
"This changes nothing," a UK govement spokesperson said following the UN ruling, which carries no formal authority over Britain or Sweden. "An allegation of rape is still outstanding and a European Arrest Warrant in place, so the UK continues to have a legal obligation to extradite him to Sweden."
Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency contractor-tued-whistleblower who resides in Russia to escape prosecution in the US, slammed the UK's decision in a tweet, saying it "writes a pass for every dictatorship to reject UN rulings" and sets a dangerous precedent.
Assange echoed the sentiment, waing that it would weaken inteational human rights efforts and would affect the standing of UK and Sweden. "Do they really want to go down that path?" he asked.
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