UN rights expert urges UK, Sweden to respect decision on detention of WikiLeaks founder News
UN rights expert urges UK, Sweden to respect decision on detention of WikiLeaks founder

[JURIST] A UN human rights expert on Monday urged [press release] the UK and Sweden to accept the recent decision which determined that Julian Assange [BBC profile], founder of the controversial website WikiLeaks [website], has been arbitrarily detained since 2010. Assange was initially arrested in December 2010 following rape allegations in Sweden. Assange was placed on house arrest in the UK and in 2012 fled to the Ecuadorian embassy, where he has been hiding out since. Considering his time spent in prison, house arrest and in the embassy, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention group [official website] found [JURIST report] his detention to be a deprivation of liberty and arbitrary. UN human rights expert Alfred de Zayas stated, “[t]he findings of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention should be accepted and their recommendations implemented in good faith.” UN expert de Zayas believes adherence to the decision is important to international order stressing the importance of uniformity of the application of international law.

WIkiLeaks, and its founder Assange, have created significant controversy since the website began openly publishing government secrets. In May the Swedish Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Assange seeking to overturn a 2010 arrest warrant for alleged sexual assault that was reissued [JURIST reports] by a lower court in late 2014. The warrant requires Assange to leave the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he has found asylum and travel to Sweden in order to be questioned about the allegations. WikiLeaks [JURIST op-ed] has also garnered much debate in the US. Last year US Army Major General Jeffery Buchanan upheld [JURIST report] Private Chelsea Manning’s conviction and prison sentence for turning over classified information to WikiLeaks. In September 2013 Manning filed for a presidential pardon of the 35-year sentence [JURIST reports] she received in August. The sentence came a month after she was found guilty [JURIST report] of violating the Espionage Act but was acquitted of the more serious charge of “aiding the enemy.”

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