Some good news, at least in light of the political ramifications stemming from this whole mess;
The thing I'm worried about is that the WGAD can of course call on any nation to amend their course of action - but is the nation/s in question actually BOUND by the WGAD's recommendations?
As with all things Assange, I guess we'll have to keep watching and waiting.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/un-rules-in-favour-of-assange-20160204-gmlojw
A United Nations panel considering the "unlawful detention" of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has ruled in the Australian's favour, the BBC has reported.
The news comes hours after Assange said he would hand himself over to authorities if the UN announces he has lost his case against arrest.
Julian Assange has been in the Ecuadorean embassy in London for more than three years...
...According to the Justice4Assange website, on Friday the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) will publicly announce its verdict in the application made by Assange for "request of relief" in the case brought against him by Sweden.
The WGAD decision was made two weeks ago and has been provided to the countries involved.
The Australian is wanted for questioning in Sweden over a sex assault allegation, which he has always denied.
"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," Assange said in the statement posted on the Wikileaks Twitter account.
"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."
In the application to the WGAD, Assange's team submitted that he "has been deprived of fundamental liberties against his will", the deprivation of his liberty is "arbitrary and illegal", and he "faces a serious risk of refoulement to the United States".
Assange fears Sweden will extradite him to the United States, where he could be put on trial over WikiLeaks' publication of classified military and diplomatic documents, one of the largest information leaks in US history.
The application also mentions his state of mental and physical health and concludes with:
"This is an application framed by political events, but at its heart, it is about a person who has been deprived of his liberty in an arbitrary manner for an unacceptable length of time. If all the names, details and events were redacted, it could be distilled to the simple and irrefutable fact that a political refugee, who has never been charged, has been deprived of their liberty for nearly four years, and confined in a very small space for over two years. The matter has come to a head because his mental and physical health are imperiled. This situation does not only affect him, but also his young children who are being denied the protection and affection of their father. The situation is in urgent need of a remedy. WGAD has both the power and the duty to grant it."
If the group concludes that Assange is being unlawfully detained, the UN is expected to call on Britain and Sweden to release him...
The thing I'm worried about is that the WGAD can of course call on any nation to amend their course of action - but is the nation/s in question actually BOUND by the WGAD's recommendations?
As with all things Assange, I guess we'll have to keep watching and waiting.