British Prime Minister David Cameron told Parliament on Wednesday that a United Nations panel’s finding that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been wrongfully detained is “ridiculous.” Assange responded quickly by accusing Cameron of libel.
“I see that the prime minister, barricading himself in the legal impunity of Parliament, has decided to libel me. Let him step outside and try. Not only am I not ‘wanted for trial,’ I haven’t been charged,” Assange said in a statement.
Cameron told Parliament that Assange had detained himself by seeking refuge in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London after facing allegations of sexual misconduct in Sweden.
He said Assange should leave the embassy and face the arrest warrant against him to end this whole “sorry saga.” Cameron was replying to a legislator’s query at Parliament’s weekly televised question-and-answer session.
The decision of the U.N. panel is not binding and both Sweden and Britain have rejected it.