WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange 'Arbitrarily Detained'

Controversial WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange felt vindicated after the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNGWAD) ruling declared his self-confinement at the Ecuadorian Embassy as a form of "arbitrary detention" blaming Sweden and the United Kingdom for the deprivation of his democratic rights and liberties.

In a nutshell, Assange has been trying to evade arrest by British authorities after running afoul with Sweden on rape allegations. He feared that if the UK police hands him over to the Swedes, the latter would likely extradite him to the United States for illegally facilitating the disclosure of state secrets to the public through WikiLeaks forcing him to ask Ecuador for a safe haven in its London embassy.

Since then, British authorities have set their eyes on Assange 24/7 to arrest him the moment he leaves the embassy.

For Assange, the ruling came as a much needed boost to get the pressure off him but Sweden and the UK remained undeterred. Nevertheless, he called the UN decision as "legally binding". Assange also warned that non-adherence by would violate "the U.N. system, and there are consequences of doing that" as mentioned in a report by CNN.

Branding the UN panel's ruling as "ridiculous", UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond maintained that Assange remains a "fugitive from justice" and that he should take the courage of facing justice in Sweden where serious cases of rape were filed against him according to a BBC report.

Writing for The Guardian, Joshua Rozenberg also challenged UNGWAD's ruling with its "absurd" and "fatally flawed" logic.

"The three-and-a-half years he has spent as a fugitive from justice cannot affect the lawfulness of his original imprisonment," wrote Rozenberg as quoted in his article featured in The Guardian.