Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was granted relief on Thursday after a United Nations panel ruled that he had been "arbitrarily detained", the Swedish foreign ministry said. The decision came in hours after Assange had said that he will leave the Ecuadorian embassy in London and surrender if he lost the case. However, Reuters reported that the British police have said they will arrest Assange if he steps out of the embassy.

Earlier in the day, Assange had said in a statement, “Should I prevail and the state parties be found to have acted unlawfully, I expect the immediate return of my passport and the termination of further attempts to arrest me,” .

Assange has been holed up at the embassy for more than three years since Swedish authorities sought his extradition in relation to sexual assault allegations made against him by two women. He has not been charged with any offence yet. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention was scheduled to take a decision on the case on Friday morning, but news of their decision broke several hours early day early.