UN member dismisses colleagues’ conclusion

The UN group’s longest-serving member said Mr Assange’s situation did not amount to detention and insisted the working group did not have the authority to examine his case.

In Vladimir Tochilovsky’s dissenting statement, published alongside the conclusions of his UN colleagues, he suggested that Mr Assange was, in fact, “self-confined”.

“The adopted opinion raises serious question as to the scope of the mandate of the working group,” said Mr Tochilovsky. “It is assumed in the opinion that Mr Assange has been detained in the Embassy of Ecuador in London by the authorities of the United Kingdom.

“It is stated that his stay in the embassy constitutes ‘a state of an arbitrary deprivation of liberty’.

“In fact, Mr Assange fled the bail in June 2012 and since then stays at the premises of the embassy using them as a safe haven to evade arrest.

“Indeed, fugitives are often self-confined within the places where they evade arrest and detention.”

The Ukrainian academic added that “premises of self-confinement cannot be considered as places of detention” by the UN panel.

The main report, signed by three of the five members, said Mr Assange should receive compensation for time he has spent in the embassy.