Julian Assange and the UNWGAD Decision

Is the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Decision on Assange ‘So Wrong’? by Dr Liora Lazarus is probably one of the best things written on Julian Assange; or in his defence. She concludes that the decision on the deprivation of Assange’s liberty, A/HRC/WGAD/2015/54, is not as retrograde as made out by most politicians and media pundits. As reported today, Swedish prosecutors are working on new bid to question the WikiLeaks founder over sex claims. Earlier on, the UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond called the decision “ridiculous” but after looking at the law and facts in very great depth, Dr Lazarus concludes otherwise and exhorts us that: To argue that Assange’s conditions are a ‘deprivation of liberty’ is not to argue that this deprivation is necessarily ‘arbitrary’. More is needed to show this. On this question, the UNWGAD was persuaded that the confinement was arbitrary. The most compelling grounds were those based on proportionality.