Nobel figure quits after Swedish body's #MeToo scandal

Digital Journal – AFP, by Gaël BRANCHEREAU (AFP)

Swedish scholar Sara Danius stepped down Tuesday from the academy that
awards the Nobel literature prize, almost a year after she quit as its permanent
secretary amid a sex scandal unveiled by the #MeToo movement.

The academic's resignation is the latest development in an affair that sprang from the movement to highlight sexual abuse, and forced the Academy to postpone awarding the literature prize in 2018.

"I have decided to give up my seat... once occupied by the first woman elected to the Academy, Selma Lagerloef," Danius, 56, said in a statement.

"It has been an honour," she added, without giving a reason for her decision.

In April 2018, Danius was forced to step down as the Academy's permanent secretary, the first woman to hold that position, owing to a scandal sparked by Jean-Claude Arnault, an influential figure on Stockholm's cultural scene.

He was convicted of raping a young woman in October and December 2011, and the academy was caught up in the affair because Arnault was married to one of its members, Katarina Frostenson, who has also resigned.

Arnault, who is French, was accused by 18 women in a statement to respected Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter, but has appealed his conviction to Sweden's Supreme Court.

The Swedish Academy had generously funded Arnault's Forum club, which was popular among aspiring young authors hoping to make contact with publishers and writers, and he had boasted he was its "19th member."

Danius, a scholar at Stockholm University, joined the Academy in 2013 and became its permanent secretary two years later.

Former Swedish Academy permanent secretary Sara Danius never flinched from
the controversial choice of Bob Dylan for the Nobel Prize in Literature - Jonathan
NACKSTRAND, AFP

As such she was the voice of the body that awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature to Belarussian journalist Svetlana Alexievitch, US songwriter Bob Dylan and British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro.

Her departure highlights a rift in the Academy between those who seek to revive it and an ageing male-dominated clique alleged to sustain a culture of silence that had protected Arnault.

It might paradoxically open the door to more female members, as permanent secretary Anders Olsson said Tuesday that three vacant seats would likely be filled by women.

"It is necessary for the Academy's balance of men and women," said Olsson, who is leaving himself because he has reached his position's age limit of 70 years.

Madelaine Levy, a critic at the daily Svenska Dagbladet agreed, telling AFP: "There is a problem of male/female balance, but also one of the member's advanced age," which she said was an average of 73 years.

With Danius however, the Academy was "losing its most popular member, and one of those best known by the public," Levy noted.

The impassioned intellectual is also known for her sense of fashion that brightened up often austere galas in the Scandinavian capital.

Frenchman in Nobel rape scandal appeals to Supreme Court

Yahoo – AFP, December 27, 2018

Once an influential figure in Stockholm's cultural scene, Jean-Claude Arnault (C)
was in early December sentenced to two years and six months in prison
for raping a woman (AFP Photo/Jonathan NACKSTRAND)

Stockholm (AFP) - A Frenchman at the centre of a scandal that led to the postponement of the 2018 Nobel Literature Prize has appealed his rape conviction to Sweden's Supreme Court, the highest court said Thursday.

Once an influential figure in Stockholm's cultural scene, 72-year-old Jean-Claude Arnault was in early December found guilty by a Stockholm appeals court of two counts of rape against one woman and sentenced to two years and six months in prison.

Arnault "has appealed the appeals court ruling and asked the Supreme Court to reject it in its entirety," the Supreme Court wrote in a statement.

The tribunal said it had given Arnault until January 28 to provide further argumentation for why the court should consider his case.

Sweden's Supreme Court only takes on cases that may set a legal precedent, or when there are exceptional reasons to reconsider a ruling.

Arnault, who has been locked up since his district court conviction in October, has made no public statement regarding his decision.

His was one of the first big trials to come out of the #MeToo movement.

The revelations also tore apart the venerable Swedish Academy, which awards the Nobel Literature Prize.

Arnault is married to Katarina Frostenson, a Swedish Academy member who has rarely spoken out about the scandal that erupted in November 2017, one month after rape and sexual abuse accusations surfaced against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.

At the time, Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter published the testimonies of 18 women claiming to have been raped, sexually assaulted or harassed by Arnault.

The Frenchman ran the Forum club, which he founded in 1989 as a meeting place for the cultural elite and was popular among aspiring young authors hoping to make contact with publishers and writers.

The Swedish Academy, which funded his club for years, has 18 members and Arnault often referred to himself as its "19th member". He reportedly occasionally leaked the names of Nobel winners to friends.

The scandal left the prestigious body deeply divided over how to manage its ties with Arnault and his wife, with some members quitting the Academy.

His accusers claim the Academy was aware of Arnault's behaviour but ensured that "a culture of silence" reigned in cultural circles.

Discredited and without a quorum to make key decisions, the Academy postponed for one year the announcement of the 2018 Nobel Literature Prize, for the first time in 70 years.

Several allegations against Arnault were dropped due to lack of evidence or because the statute of limitations had expired.

Frenchman in Nobel scandal jailed for 2 years for rape

Yahoo – AFP, Gaël BRANCHEREAU, 1 October 2018

Frenchman Jean-Claude Arnault went on trial at Stockholm district court in September

A Swedish court on Monday sentenced a Frenchman at the heart of a Nobel scandal to two years in jail for rape in a scandal that emerged during the #MeToo campaign.

An influential figure in Stockholm's cultural scene, 72-year-old Jean-Claude Arnault went on trial last month on two counts of rape relating to incidents dating back to 2011.

In its ruling on Monday, the Stockholm district court found him guilty on one of the charges while acquitting him of the other.

"The defendant is found guilty of rape committed during the night between the 5th and 6th of October 2011 and has been sentenced to imprisonment for two years," a court statement said.

Prosecutors had called for a minimum sentence of three years in what was one of the first big trials to come out of the #MeToo movement.

"There is no reason why the sentence should be less than two years," presiding judge Gudrun Antemar told a press conference, saying the victim had been put in a situation where she was "helpless".

Arnault's lawyer Bjorn Hurtig told news agency TT his client, who has maintained his innocence from the start, had asked him to appeal the verdict.

The victim's lawyer, Elisabeth Massi Fritz, meanwhile called the ruling "a huge relief for my client and a victory for justice".

Arnault is married to a member of the Swedish Academy which selects the Nobel Literature Prize winner, with the scandal prompting the postponement of this year's award.

The scandal erupted in November 2017, one month after rape and sexual abuse accusations surfaced against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.

At the time, Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter published the testimonies of 18 women claiming to have been raped, sexually assaulted or harassed by Arnault, who had close ties to the Academy.

Discredited, divided

The Frenchman ran the Forum club, which he founded in 1989 as a meeting place for the cultural elite and which was popular among aspiring young authors hoping to make contact with publishers and writers.

The Swedish Academy, which funded his club for years, has 18 members who are elected for life and Arnault often referred to himself as its "19th member".

But the revelations have left the prestigious body deeply divided over how to manage its ties with him and his wife, poet Katarina Frostenson.

In delivering the Swedish court's verdict against Frenchman Jean-Claude 

Arnault, Judge Gudrun Anteman said the victim had been left "helpless"

Eight of its members have either resigned or are on leave, and several of them regularly trade ugly barbs via the media.

Discredited and without a quorum to make key decisions, the Academy postponed the announcement of the 2018 Nobel Literature Prize for the first time in 70 years.

"It is great that justice has been served and that the court noted the gravity of such (Arnault's) crimes," Peter Englund, who stepped down from the Academy in April over the affair, told TT.

'Intense fear'

Prosecutors investigating the allegations against Arnault dropped several of them due to lack of evidence or because the statute of limitations had expired.

The two counts of rape involved one woman.

According to the prosecution, Arnault allegedly forced the woman -- who was in a state of "intense fear" -- to have oral sex and intercourse in a Stockholm apartment on October 5, 2011.

He was also accused of raping her during the night of December 2-3 while she was asleep but the court found there was insufficient evidence to convict him on that charge.

The trial was heard behind closed doors to protect the victim, whose identity has not been disclosed.

Arnault has been held in preventive custody since the end of his trial on September 24 and will remain in jail until the formal start of his sentence, the court said.

Culture of silence

His accusers claim the Swedish Academy was well aware of his behaviour, and blame the institution for having helped create a "culture of silence" that pervaded Sweden's cultural circles.

An internal Academy probe concluded there were conflicts of interest between Arnault and the Academy, and that several female Academy members and people close to them had been harassed or assaulted by the Frenchman.

It also found he had leaked the names of Nobel literature laureates to his friends on several occasions.

According to the Svenska Dagbladet daily, Arnault was born in Marseille in 1946 to Russian refugee parents and came to Sweden in the late 1960s to study photography.

No Nobel Literature Prize as Academy's bell tolls

France24 – AFP, 29 September 2018

US singer Bob Dylan was controversially awarded the 2016 Literature
Nobel Price (AFP)

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - In tatters after a #MeToo scandal, the Swedish Academy has postponed this year's Nobel Literature Prize, leaving an empty page for 2018 as it attempts to reform the venerable institution.

Created in 1786 by King Gustav III and modelled on its French elder, the Swedish Academy has selected the winner of the prestigious literary distinction since it was first awarded in 1901.

The "Holy Grail" of authors, poets, and playwrights, the Nobel has gone to some of the greatest writers of all time, from Albert Camus to Samuel Beckett and Ernest Hemingway.

But the list of recipients also includes US rock icon Bob Dylan, the 2016 choice harshly criticised by some who lambasted the Academy for overlooking other popular and critically-acclaimed authors -- such as American novelist Philip Roth, who died in May 2017 without getting the nod.

After the Dylan controversy, the Academy attempted to smooth things over last year with an uncontroversial laureate, Kazuo Ishiguro, a British author of Japanese origin whose nomination enjoyed broad consensus.

But just three weeks after that announcement, the institution again found itself in controversy, this time in the eye of the #MeToo hurricane.

Frenchman Jean-Claude Arnault, married to an Academy member, and the head of an influential cultural club in Stockholm, was accused of rape and sexual assault.

An internal Academy probe also revealed conflicts of interest between him and the institution, which had funded his club for years.

Arnault ultimately faced trial on two counts of raping a woman in 2011. His verdict is due on Monday, and the prosecution has sought a three-year sentence.

A haemorrhaging Academy

The Academy has been deeply divided over how to deal with Arnault and on the reforms it needs to undertake.

Some of the 18 members, who are appointed for life, have refused to participate in the Academy's work over the row -- including its first female permanent secretary Sara Danius -- leaving it without a quorum.

And in the months since the scandal erupted, the usually-discreet members have exchanged ugly jibes in the media.

Paralysed and ridiculed around the world, the scandal forced the Academy's hand: it announced in May that it would postpone by one year the 2018 Nobel Literature Prize, a first in 70 years.

The 2018 laureate will be announced at the same time as the 2019 prize.

"I could see that there were weaknesses in their organisation but I would never have thought something like this could happen," Lars Heikensten, director of the Nobel Foundation that finances the prizes, told AFP.

"We hope that they will be able to clear up their things."

'Ridiculous' and 'chauvinist'

With the Academy in shambles and no literature prize to look forward to this year, a group of Swedish cultural figures decided to create their own award pending the Nobel's return next year.

The "New Academy Prize in Literature" was devised as a protest to denounce "bias, arrogance and sexism", and "remind people that literature and culture at large should promote democracy, transparency, empathy and respect, without privilege", according to the founders who include authors, artists and journalists.

It will be announced on October 12.

The Swedish Academy, a hermetic circle whose deliberations in Stockholm's cobblestoned Old Town whose deliberations are kept secret for 50 years, is seen as out-of-touch with reality and modern times.

"Lifetime membership and an ageing population also create a difficult situation, with some members still active at an age where they no longer have the capacity to work professionally, or understand how the Academy is perceived by the public," Madelaine Levy, literary critic at daily Svenska Dagbladet, told AFP.

The public has lost confidence in the body, perceiving it as "ridiculous" and "chauvinist", she said.

"The Academy needs reform, namely more transparency and stricter conflict of interest regulations."

Publishers meanwhile fear the Academy's crisis is far from over.

"I'm keeping my fingers crossed but as things are now I would say I am uncertain" there will be a Nobel Literature Prize in 2019, Hakan Bravinger, an editor at Sweden's second-biggest publishing house Norstedts, told AFP.

Three quit in protest as #MeToo scandal rocks Nobel literature academy

Yahoo – AFP, Gaël BRANCHEREAU, 6 April 2018

The prestigious Academy has been reeling since it was revealed as part of the
#MeToo campaign in November that several members, as well as members'
wives and daughters, had allegedly been assaulted by the well-known figure
at the centre of the scandal

Three prominent members of the Swedish Academy resigned on Friday in protest at close ties between the institution, which awards the Nobel Literature Prize, and a high-profile man accused of sexual assault.

The Academy has been reeling since it was revealed as part of the #MeToo campaign in November that several members, as well as members' wives and daughters, had allegedly been assaulted by the well-known figure at the centre of the scandal.

Sweden's Dagens Nyheter newspaper broke the news, publishing the testimony of 18 women claiming to have been assaulted or raped by one of the most influential figures in Stockholm's cultural scene.

The Academy has since cut all ties with the man, who has not been publicly identified.

But his identity is generally known by the public as he is a high-profile person in cultural circles.

The alleged sexual assaults occurred between 1996 and 2017, according to Dagens Nyheter.

One of the resigning members Peter Englund said the scandal had deeply divided the Swedish literary world.

"Over time, a crack that appeared has continued to grow," he said in a letter to the Aftonbladet newspaper, adding that the Academy's permanent secretary Sara Danius had been subject to "unjustified" criticism.

The fallout continued Friday as King Carl XVI Gustaf was informed of developments as the director general of the Nobel Foundation Lars Heikensten expressed concern over a "serious and difficult situation".

'Tower of Babel is crumbling'

Along with Englund, members Klas Ostergren and Kjell Espmark decided to step down after the group's normal meeting on Thursday at a Stockholm restaurant.

"It is with great sadness that after 36 years working at the Academy, including 17 as chairman of the Nobel Committee, I feel forced to make this decision," Espmark said in a letter to the media.

"When prominent academy members put friendship ahead of responsibility and integrity, I can no longer participate in its work".

Ostergren condemned "a betrayal of the founder and his great protector", referring to the Academy's founder, Swedish King Gustav III, and inventor Alfred Nobel, who left some of his fortune to the institution.

The three men are lifetime members and cannot technically resign, but there is nothing forcing them to attend meetings.

Of the academy's 18 members, five are no longer active after two women, Kerstin Ekman and Lotta Lotass, went on leave for several years.

Bjorn Wiman, the culture editor of Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, said the resignations are "a disaster" for an academy "in ruins".

His counterpart at the Aftonbladet newspaper, Asa Linderborg, said "the tower of Babel is crumbling".

The allegations against the man were first revealed as part of the #MeToo campaign exposing sexual misconduct, which began in Hollywood and went on to shake artistic, media and political circles in Sweden, one of the most gender equal countries in the world.

In March, Stockholm's public prosecutor's office announced that part of the investigation, into claims of alleged rapes and assaults between 2013 and 2015, had been called off as the statute of limitation had passed or due to lack of evidence.

Nobel literature academy shaken by #MeToo sex scandal wave

Geotv - AFP, 24 November 2017

STOCKHOLM: The Swedish Academy, which awards the Nobel Literature Prize, has been rattled by a sex scandal as several members, their wives and daughters accused an influential person with close ties to the prestigious institution of assault.

The #MeToo wave exposing sexual misconduct which began in Hollywood has shaken artistic, media and political circles in Sweden, one of the most gender equal countries in the world, as thousands of women have spoken up and campaigned against harassment.

Sweden´s prestigious literary scene was drawn into the fray on Tuesday when newspaper of reference Dagens Nyheter published the testimony of 18 women claiming to have been assaulted or raped by one of the most influential figures in Stockholm´s cultural scene.

The accused man´s name has not been published in the media due to Swedish laws on the presumption of innocence. But his identity is generally known by the public as he is a high-profile person in cultural circles and his name has appeared in online chat forums discussing the issue.

The man did not respond to AFP´s request for a comment, though he told Dagens Nyheter he was innocent.

Married to a writer with "close links to the Swedish Academy", the man runs a cultural club showcasing exhibitions, readings and performances by both the cultural elite and hopefuls -- including Nobel literature laureates -- and dubbed by some as "the Academy´s living room".

The club was partly funded by the Academy.

'Everyone has always known'

The alleged sexual assaults occurred between 1996 and 2017, some of them in the club´s premises, according to Dagens Nyheter.

Several women spoke openly, allowing the newspaper to reveal their identities, and their stories were corroborated by eyewitnesses, the paper said.

One of them claims to have been raped in an apartment in a posh Stockholm neighbourhood.

"Everyone knows and everyone has always known," that he was attacking young women, she says.

The women said they remained silent out of fear of jeopardising their careers because of the man´s connections and close relations with leading publishers, producers, directors and composers.

After a "crisis meeting" on Thursday evening, the Swedish Academy announced that it was cutting all ties with the accused, whom it had funded and allowed to manage an apartment it owns in an upscale Paris neighbourhood.

The Academy said in a statement that during the meeting, "it emerged that members of the Academy, daughters of Academy members, wives of Academy members and staff of the Academy have experienced unwanted intimacy or inappropriate behaviour" by the man.

The prominent institution said it would launch an internal inquiry to find out if the man "has had any direct or indirect influence on the Academy´s prizes, scholarships, and fundings of any kind".

Culture Minister Alice Bah Kuhnke said she regretted honouring him with the 2015 Order of The Polar Star, awarded to members of the Swedish royal family and foreigners for services to Sweden.

Dutch prosecutors reach $274m deal with Telia in Uzbek corruption case

DutchNews, September 22, 2017

Photo: Despositphotos.com 

Three Rotterdam based subsidiaries of Swedish telecom giant Telia have agreed to pay $274m in an out of court settlement for bribing government officials and keeping inaccurate books and records. 

The fine relates to the company’s efforts to gain access to the Uzbek telecom market, during which officials paid bribes to the eldest daughter of the former president of Uzbekistan via its Dutch subsidiaries, the public prosecution department said. The deal covers the period 2007 to 2010. 

Telia has also reached settlements with the US department of justice and the US securities and exchange commission. In total, the company has agreed to pay $965m to settle the charges. 

The Netherlands considers the fine as ‘appropriate’, the Dutch prosecutor said in a statement. ‘It is a punishment that hurts, and it does justice to the significance of the acts committed as well as to the disruption these acts caused to the legal order.  The parallel [US] government action against corruption demonstrates that corruption is tackled internationally.’ 

Assange claims victory after Sweden drops rape probe

Yahoo – AFP, May 19, 2017

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange speaks on the balcony of the Embassy of
Ecuador in London on May 19, 2017 (AFP Photo/Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS)

London (AFP) - Julian Assange claimed victory Friday after Swedish prosecutors dropped a seven-year rape allegation against the WikiLeaks founder, but insisted the "proper war" over his future was only just beginning.

Assange gave a clenched fist salute as he stepped into the daylight on the balcony of Ecuador's London embassy, where he has been holed up since 2012.

But the 45-year-old Australian said the road was "far from over" and declined to reveal whether he would leave the embassy after five years cooped up inside.

British police would arrest him immediately for breaching earlier bail conditions if he left the embassy, while US authorities have warned they regard WikiLeaks as a "hostile intelligence service".

"Today is an important victory," Assange told reporters and a small band of supporters crowded around the tiny balcony, after emerging wearing a black shirt and jacket.

"But it by no means erases seven years of detention without charge. In prison, under house arrest and almost five years here in this embassy without sunlight.

"That is not something that I can forgive. It is not something that I can forget."

Uncertain future

Earlier in Stockholm, Marianne Ny, Sweden's director of public prosecutions, said the rape investigation had been dropped because there was "no reason to believe that the decision to surrender him to Sweden can be executed in the foreseeable future".

"It is no longer proportionate to maintain the arrest of Julian Assange in his absence," she said.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange raises his fist prior to addressing the media on

 the balcony of the Embassy of Ecuador in London on May 19, 2017 (AFP Photo/

Justin TALLIS)

Despite the probe in Sweden being dropped, Assange would still face arrest if he set foot outside the embassy, a flat located just behind the plush Harrods emporium.

Assange jumped British bail by entering the embassy and claiming asylum, saying he feared he would eventually be extradited to the United States.

US justice authorities have never confirmed that they have Assange under investigation or are seeking his extradition.

But US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said last month that "we will seek to put some people in jail", when asked if arresting Assange was a "priority" for Washington.

US prosecutors have been drafting a memo that looks at charges against Assange and WikiLeaks members that possibly include conspiracy, theft of government property and violations of the Espionage Act, according to The Washington Post.

US President Donald Trump's administration has put heat on WikiLeaks after it embarrassed the Central Intelligence Agency in March by releasing files and computer code from the spy agency's top-secret hacking operations.

"While today was an important victory and an important vindication, the road is far from over. The war, the proper war is just commencing," Assange said.

He said his lawyers were in touch with the British authorities and hoped to begin a dialogue about the "best way forward".

And the former computer hacker said that despite the "extremely threatening remarks" emanating from Washington, he was "always ready to engage with the Department of Justice".

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange speaks on the balcony of the Embassy 

of Ecuador in London on May 19, 2017 (AFP Photo/Adrian DENNIS)

The department said Friday it had no comment "at this point" on Assange.

Asked if London would now support a request to extradite Assange to the United States, British Prime Minister Theresa May said: "We look at extradition requests on a case-by-case basis."

Assange's Swedish lawyer, Per Samuelsson, said his client plans to move to Ecuador because "it's the only nation where he is safe".

Decision a 'scandal'

In Sweden, Assange's accuser was left stunned by the prosecutors' decision.

"It is a scandal that a suspected rapist can escape justice and thereby avoid the courts," her lawyer, Elisabeth Fritz, told AFP in an email.

"My client is shocked and no decision to (end the case) can make her change (her mind) that Assange exposed her to rape," she said.

The accusation against Assange dates from August 2010 when the alleged victim, who says she met him at a WikiLeaks conference in Stockholm a few days earlier, filed a complaint.

She accused him of having sex with her -- as she slept -- without using a condom despite repeatedly having denied him unprotected sex.

Assange always denied the allegations, which he feared would lead to him being extradited to the United States and facing trial over the leak of hundreds of thousands of secret US military and diplomatic documents in 2010, which brought WikiLeaks to prominence.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange addresses the media holding a printed report

of the judgement of the UN's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on his case

 from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in central London on February 5,

2016 (AFP Photo/Niklas Halle'n)

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Assange hails 'victory' from embassy balcony after UN panel ruling

Yahoo – AFP, Jacques Klopp, February 5, 2016

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange addresses the media holding a printed report 

of the judgement of the UN's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on his case

 from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in central London on February 5, 

2016 (AFP Photo/Niklas Halle'n)

London (AFP) - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Friday urged Britain to let him walk free from Ecuador's London embassy after a UN panel found that the anti-secrecy campaigner who faces a rape allegation in Sweden was "arbitrarily detained."

Speaking to a handful of supporters and a media scrum in a rare appearance from the balcony of the embassy where he took refuge nearly four years ago, Assange hailed a "victory of historical importance".

"How sweet it is! This is a victory that cannot be denied," he proclaimed, waving a hard copy of the legal opinion and often seeming emotional.

Assange has refused to go to Sweden for questioning fearing deportation to the US over WikiLeaks' release of 500,000 secret military files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

A look back at the key dates in the life of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

(AFP Photo/Kun Tian, Thomas Saint-Cricq)

Earlier, the 44-year-old Australian told journalists via video link that it was "now the task of the states of Sweden and the United Kingdom as a whole to implement the verdict".

The UN panel said Assange's detention should end and that he should be able to claim compensation from Britain and Sweden.

But both countries quickly dismissed the non-binding legal opinion, with Britain's Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond calling it "ridiculous".

Assange walked into the embassy in June 2012 to avoid the threat of arrest and extradition to Sweden, where he still faces a rape allegation.

He has lived there ever since in a small office room with a bed, computer, sun lamp, treadmill and access to a small balcony decorated with Ecuador's flag.

Ecuador's Foreign Minister Ricardo 

Patino speaks during a press conference

 in Quito on February 5, 2016 (AFP Photo/

Rodrigo Buendia)

In a statement, the panel said it had adopted an opinion that considered Assange "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."

Fears of imprisonment

Britain and Sweden sharply condemned the panel's findings and said they would change nothing.

Hammond called Assange "a fugitive from justice."

"This is frankly a ridiculous finding by the working group and we reject it," the foreign secretary added.

Sweden's foreign ministry said that it "does not agree" with the assessment.

"Mr Assange is free to leave the embassy at any point and Swedish authorities have no control over his decision to stay at the embassy," the ministry added.

Only three of the five members of the UN panel supported the opinion -- one recused herself because she is Australian, like Assange, and another member disagreed.

British designer Vivienne Westwood displays a British passport after arriving to visit

 Wikileaks founder Julian Assange at Ecuador's embassy in central London, on

February 4, 2016 (AFP Photo/Chris Ratcliffe)

Christophe Peschoux, the working group's secretary, said at a briefing in Geneva that Britain and Sweden had two months to submit new information to force a review, and Britain says it will contest the opinion.

Ecuador's Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said it was "time for both governments... to allow Julian Assange his freedom."

Swedish authorities want to speak to Assange about a rape allegation whose statute of limitations does not expire until 2020.

Elizabeth Fritz, the lawyer for the woman who has accused Assange, criticised the panel's comments.

"That a man who is wanted on an arrest warrant for rape should be awarded compensation for intentionally hiding from the judicial system for more than five years is offensive to my client," she said.

Swedish judicial authorities said last month that Ecuador had refused its request to let a Swedish prosecutor question Assange because Quito wanted an Ecuadorean prosecutor to do the questioning.

British Foreign Secretary Philip

Hammond described the UN panels'

decision on Wikileaks founder Julian 

Assange as "ridiculous" as he 

met journalists in London, on 

February 5, 2016 (AFP Photo/

Niklas Halle'n)

'Publicity stunt'

Assange fears that if he went to Sweden for questioning, he could then be sent to the US and face prison. 

WikiLeaks' activities -- including the release of 500,000 secret military files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq -- 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 supporters and a dangerous egocentric to detractors, the computer programmer and hacker, whose celebrity fans include fashion designer Vivienne Westwood and singer Lady Gaga, founded WikiLeaks in 2006 and has been portrayed in two movies in recent years.

Britain spent over £10 million (12 million euros, $15 million) maintaining a 24-hour guard outside the embassy to immediately arrest Assange if he set foot on British soil, but withdrew it last year.

The Assange case has polarised opinion in Britain and there were many criticisms of his conduct Friday.

The Guardian newspaper, which has in the past worked with WikiLeaks to publish secret documents, used an editorial to condemn the latest developments as "a publicity stunt."

Julian #Assange should be able to walk free and claim compensation, UN panel says: https://t.co/3K7c4d7XKF pic.twitter.com/9WcaQsz7lw

— AFP London (@afplondon) February 5, 2016

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