Ecuador says Assange welcome to remain in embassy

Ecuador said Thursday that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is welcome to remain in its London embassy, ahead of a UN panel's expected ruling that his stay there amounts to illegal detention.

"It's a personal decision. We've given him protection and of course it is still in place. The basis on which we granted him asylum remains in place," Patino told journalists, a day before the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention was expected to publish a ruling in Assange's favor.

Assange, who fled to the embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden to face a rape allegation, filed a complaint against Britain and Sweden with the UN panel in September 2014, claiming his confinement amounted to illegal detention.

The Swedish foreign ministry said the panel had ruled in Assange's favor.

Assange has said that should mean he is now treated as a free man, but Swedish prosecutors said the non-binding ruling had no impact on their investigation, and the British government said it was still under an obligation to arrest him.

Assange is wanted on a 2010 rape accusation, which he denies.

The 44-year-old Australian refuses to travel to Sweden to answer the allegation, saying he fears he would then face extradition to the United States and trial over the leaking of hundreds of thousands of classified US military and diplomatic documents in 2010.

Photo: Daily Mail