LONDON — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Friday urged Britain and Sweden to let him walk free from the embassy of Ecuador in London after a UN panel found that the anti-secrecy campaigner had been "arbitrarily detained".
Addressing a news conference via video link from the embassy, where he sought refuge in June 2012 and was later granted asylum, Assange hailed a "significant victory which has brought a smile to my face".
"It is now the task of the states of Sweden and the United Kingdom as a whole to implement the verdict," the 44-year-old Australian computer hacker turned transparency advocate told a packed room of journalists in the British capital.
His comments came after a UN panel said Assange's detention should end and that he should be able to claim compensation from Britain and Sweden, where he faces questioning over a rape allegation.
But both countries quickly dismissed the non-binding legal opinion, with Britain's Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond calling it "ridiculous" and Sweden's foreign ministry saying the panel had no right to "interfere".
Assange walked into the embassy in June 2012 to avoid the threat of arrest and extradition to Sweden. He has lived there in self-imposed confinement ever since in a small office room with a bed, computer, sun lamp, treadmill, and access only to a small balcony.
In a statement, the UN panel said it had adopted an opinion "in which it considered that Mr Julian Assange was arbitrarily detained by the Governments of Sweden and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland".
It added: "The working group also considered that the detention should be brought to an end and that Mr Assange should be afforded the right to compensation."
The British government said the UN ruling "changes nothing".
"We completely reject any claim that Julian Assange is a victim of arbitrary detention. The UK has already made clear to the UN that we will formally contest the working group's opinion," it said in a statement.
Sweden's "government does not agree with the assessment made by the majority of the Working Group," the foreign ministry in Stockholm said in a letter to the UN panel, adding that the body did not have the right to "interfere in an ongoing case handled by a Swedish public authority".
Assange's lawyer in Stockholm, Thomas Olsson, told AFP: "If Sweden expects other countries to abide by UN recommendations, then they must also respect those decisions.
"We can ask the prosecutor for a review of the arrest warrant but we will first let the prosecutor have a chance to show that they respect the UN report," he said.
In a statement on Thursday, Assange said that a ruling in his favour should lead to "the immediate return [of] my passport and the termination of further attempts to arrest me".
Swedish authorities want to speak to Assange about a rape allegation for which the statute of limitations does not expire until 2020. But he fears that he could then be sent to the US and face prison there if he gave himself up for questioning.
WikiLeaks' activities — including the release of 500,000 secret military files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and 250,000 diplomatic cables — have infuriated the US. The main source of the leaks, US Army soldier Chelsea Manning, was sentenced to 35 years in prison for breaches of the Espionage Act.
A hero to some and a dangerous, paranoid egomaniac to detractors, the computer programmer and hacker, whose celebrity supporters include the fashion designer Vivienne Westwood and artist Yoko Ono, founded the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks in 2006.
Ecuador granted Assange asylum in 2012, and on Thursday President Rafael Correa told a news conference the expected UN decision "shows we were right, after so many years".
Britain has spent millions of pounds maintaining a 24-hour guard outside the embassy to immediately arrest Assange if he set foot on British soil.
The guard was withdrawn last year, but police said they would strengthen a "covert plan" to prevent Assange from slipping away.
The decision by the UN panel was made in December but has only now been published.
It follows a complaint by WikiLeaks against Sweden and Britain in September 2014 in which they claimed Assange's confinement in the embassy was unlawful and that he was a "political refugee".
Though the panel's rulings are not legally binding, the Justice for Assange support group said it had influenced the release of prominent figures including Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi and former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed.