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Assange will 'accept arrest' on Friday if found guilty

UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention set to rule on legality of long couch-surfing stint

Julian Assange's long-distance couch-surfing binge may be about to end, as the white-haired Wikileaker-in-chief has signalled he is willing to be arrested on Friday if he loses a case against the United Kingdom and Sweden.

Assange revealed the news with the Tweet below.

The “UN” mention in the Tweet refers to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, to which Assange made a complaint about his long un-planned stay in Ecuador's London embassy.

Assange sought asylum in the Embassy because he feared extradition to Sweden and ultimately to the United states. Sweden has long wanted to talk to Assange about complaints made by two women with whom he shared sexual encounters in 2010, but allowed Assange to return to the United Kingdom as it investigated allegations of rape. Assange was asked to return to Sweden, but felt that once in custody there he would swiftly be extradited to the United States to face espionage charges over WikiLeaks' activities. He therefore sought asylum and has been in Ecuador's embassy ever since, but protested his situation by making a complaint to the Working Group.

An adjudication on that complaint has been widely expected to land on Friday. Assange's Tweet suggests he's been told of the day on which he will learn his fate.

Assange's statement that he has “no meaningful prospect of further appeal” looks like a retreat, as he's been in long negotiations with Swedish authorities as he seeks to address the attempts to extradite him to the land of ABBA. If Assange is indeed willing to give himself up to Police he risks the fate he's long declared intolerable and unjust. ®

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