Sweden's Foreign Ministry said today that a United Nations panel had ruled that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange had been "arbitrarily detained".

"Their working group has made the judgment that Assange has been arbitrarily detained in contravention of international commitments," a spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry said.

The comment confirms a report by the BBC earlier on Thursday.

Assange, 44, took refuge in Ecuador's embassy in London in June 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden. Swedish prosecutors want to question him over allegations, which he denies, that he committed rape in 2010.

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