Prosecutors in Sweden have dropped an investigation into a rape allegation made against Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange in 2010.

“The reason for this decision is that the evidence has weakened considerably due to the long period of time that has elapsed since the events in question.”

Three and a half years after he sought temporary asylum in the Ecuadorean embassy in London only to find himself a captive instead, a UN group has ruled that UK and Swedish authorities unlawfully detained WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in violation of their international human rights obligations.

The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said in a statement released today that UK authorities should let Assange leave the embassy and that both the UK and Sweden should compensate him for what it said was an “arbitrary” or prohibited detention.

“Having concluded that there was a continuous deprivation of liberty, the Working Group … found that the detention was arbitrary because he was held in isolation during the first stage of detention and because of the lack of diligence by the Swedish Prosecutor in its investigations, which resulted in the lengthy detention of Mr. Assange,”

Although Assange has technically been a voluntary resident at the embassy since he sought asylum there in June 2012, he has effectively been a captive in that he has been forced to remain inside the building or risk arrest