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| Julian Assange says he will 'accept arrest' if UN panel rules against him | |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| The WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says he will agree to be arrested by British police on Friday if an investigation by a UN panel into the legality of his three-and-a-half-year enforced stay at Ecuadorian embassy in central London does not rule in his favour. | |
| Related: Julian Assange's embassy showdown: what it means and what happens next | Related: Julian Assange's embassy showdown: what it means and what happens next |
| A United Nations working group on arbitrary detention is set to hand down a determination on Assange’s case on Friday morning. | |
| The UN is due to rule in Assange’s favour, according to the BBC, although the Guardian can not independently verify this. It is not clear if Assange has any knowledge of the findings of the UN investigation, which is thought to have concluded in December. | |
| The Metropolitan police have said they will make “every effort” to arrest the WikiLeaks founder should he leave but it is not clear if the panel findings will have any influence on the police’s decision to arrest him. | |
| Assange has been living in the Ecuadorian embassy since June 2012, after Swedish authorities sought his extradition. He has not been charged with any offence, but has been sought for questioning in Sweden in relation to sexual assault allegations made against by two women against him. | |
| The decision is a last-ditch legal attempt by Assange for a ruling that his detention is arbitrary and unlawful. It rests on a challenge to the European extradition system, his inability to access the benefit of the grant of asylum by Ecuador, and what he argues is his long-term detention. | The decision is a last-ditch legal attempt by Assange for a ruling that his detention is arbitrary and unlawful. It rests on a challenge to the European extradition system, his inability to access the benefit of the grant of asylum by Ecuador, and what he argues is his long-term detention. |
| The submission to the UN was launched with little fanfare, Assange’s said in a statement that the UN encourages the adjudicators to carry out its task with “discretion, objectivity and independence” and that the UK and Swedish governments had submitted their responses to the working group on arbitrary detention confidentially. | |
| In a statement issued by WikiLeaks on Twitter, Assange said: “Should the UN announce tomorrow that I have lost my case against the United Kingdom and Sweden, I shall exit the embassy at noon on Friday to accept arrest by British police as there is no meaningful prospect of further appeal. | In a statement issued by WikiLeaks on Twitter, Assange said: “Should the UN announce tomorrow that I have lost my case against the United Kingdom and Sweden, I shall exit the embassy at noon on Friday to accept arrest by British police as there is no meaningful prospect of further appeal. |
| “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.” | “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.” |
| Related: Timeline: Julian Assange and Sweden's prosecutors | Related: Timeline: Julian Assange and Sweden's prosecutors |
| The ultimatum issued by Assange will come as a surprise to many observers, coming at the end of a a lengthy diplomatic wrangle between Sweden and Ecuador to allow him to be questioned at the Ecuadorian embassy by Swedish prosecutors. | |
| An agreement was finally reached late last year, and the South American nation’s foreign minister, Ricardo Patiño, told the Ecuadorean radio station Publica that the country was accepting Sweden’s request to interrogate Assange “as long as the sovereignty of the Ecuadorian state and the laws in the constitution are respected”. Permission had been granted by the British authorities in June. | |
| Per E Samuelsson, Assange’s Swedish lawyer, said his client still hoped to clear his name. “If he is regarded detained I take it for granted that Marianne Ny and Swedish authorities will respect that decision and instantly cancel the decision to keep Mr Assange in custody,” he told the Guardian. | |
| “This does not mean that the question of interrogation will be over. We still want an interrogation to take place so that Mr Assange can clear his name and show everyone that he is innocent. | |
| “The difference is that he will no longer be in custody in absentia and thus be able to use his asylum outside of the embassy.” | |
| The WikiLeaks founder had raised repeated concerns about Swedish demands that he be questioned in person over the allegations, due to fears he may be extradited to the United States. A grand jury investigation is still believed to be under way in the US following WikiLeaks’ publication of the Afghan war diary and United States diplomatic cables. | The WikiLeaks founder had raised repeated concerns about Swedish demands that he be questioned in person over the allegations, due to fears he may be extradited to the United States. A grand jury investigation is still believed to be under way in the US following WikiLeaks’ publication of the Afghan war diary and United States diplomatic cables. |
| Swedish authorities have come under scrutiny for their approach to questioning him. It was only in January 2016 that a deal was finally struck by prosecutors with Ecuadorian officials to allow Assange to be questioned at the embassy in London. | Swedish authorities have come under scrutiny for their approach to questioning him. It was only in January 2016 that a deal was finally struck by prosecutors with Ecuadorian officials to allow Assange to be questioned at the embassy in London. |
| Swedish authorities said in August 2015 they were ceasing their inquiries into two counts of alleged sexual molestation and one count of alleged unlawful coercion, with the offences reaching their statute of limitations. A further allegation of rape is still the subject of inquiries. | Swedish authorities said in August 2015 they were ceasing their inquiries into two counts of alleged sexual molestation and one count of alleged unlawful coercion, with the offences reaching their statute of limitations. A further allegation of rape is still the subject of inquiries. |
| Assange first entered the Ecuadorian embassy in 2012 after mounting a series of legal challenges in the UK to an extradition warrant from Sweden. | Assange first entered the Ecuadorian embassy in 2012 after mounting a series of legal challenges in the UK to an extradition warrant from Sweden. |
| The Metropolitan police recently halted permanent patrols outside the embassy, which had been in place since Assange arrived, because they were “no longer proportionate”. | |
| Metropolitan police officers had maintained a constant watch of the embassy in Knightsbridge, close to luxury department store Harrods, at a cost of at least £11.1m to the public purse, according to figures released by Scotland Yard in June last year. Covert surveillance is still in place, and in October police rejected a request from the Ecuadorian embassy that Assange be allowed “safe passage” out of the London embassy to a hospital for an MRI scan reccommended by his doctor. | |
| The Foreign Office said it would not seek to deny Assange medical treatment but the Metropolitan police reiterated it would arrest the WikiLeaks founder if he left the embassy. | |
| A Met spokesman said: “The operation to arrest Julian Assange does, however, continue and should he leave the embassy the MPS will make every effort to arrest him.” |