The United Kingdom's costs for its embassy "siege" against Julian Assange, who has not been charged with an offence, has hit 10 million pounds, Scotland Yard confirmed today.

Meanwhile, damning footage has been released from the United Nations.

Sweden fell under fire at the UN over its decision to insist on the detention of Assange for more than 1,500 days without charge. It aborted its own press conference after pointed questions from journalists, and explicitly stated that it had no problem with indefinite detention without charge, not just for Mr Assange, but as a principle. Most countries place strict limits on detention without charge. In the UK and Australia, and in the US (except for Guantanamo Bay), a matter of hours.

Mr Assange said: "Sweden has imported Guantanamo's most shameful legal practice - indefinite detention without charge."

On 26 January 2015 Sweden was the subject of the United Nations Human Rights Commission Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the UN in Geneva. Fifty-nine human rights organisations filed complaints against Sweden's behaviour in the Assange case as part of the UPR.

UN member states also reviewed, questioned and made recommendations to Sweden on their human rights policies and record. During the session seven member states made recommendations involving Julian Assange's case, raising concerns about how Sweden treats the rights of those with asylum and those it detains pre-trial, and especially those detained without charges: Argentina, Cuba, Ecuador, Macedonia, Nicaragua, Slovakia and Uruguay. Sweden neglected to respond within the session to most of these countries' concerns, except to recall its non-recognition of Mr Assange's asylum.

After the UPR session the Swedish delegation – headed by Annika Söder, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs – held a press conference at 1pm outside the UN room in which the UPR had been conducted. The press conference lasted only 4 minutes before Ms. Söder abruptly cut it off after finding that all the questions were about Sweden's mishandling of Assange's case.

After the press conference WikiLeaks journalist Sarah Harrison (well-known for "rescuing" Edward Snowden from Hong Kong) approached Anders Rönquist, Director-General for Legal Affairs at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, to ask for a response to Ecuador's recommendations. These were that Sweden time-limits any type of detention where the person has not been charged, and that Sweden implements more mechanisms in their prosecutorial procedures to ensure the rights are protected of those that have asylum or are refugees. The Director-General responded that Sweden was under no obligation to limit time in pre-trial detention, or limit the time someone is detained, even if not charged. He stated that he had no issues from a human rights perspective of detaining someone indefinitely, even if they have not been charged.

Julian Assange, Editor-in-Chief of WikiLeaks, has not been charged with any crime in any country although he has been formally detained by Sweden's detention decision for 1,522 days – 960 days in the embassy.

He has been given asylum by the government of Ecuador to protect him from the threat of the United States Government, which is preparing an "espionage" case against Mr Assange and WikiLeaks that is "unprecedented in scale and nature". The offences listed so far total 45 years. Sweden and the United Kingdom are blocking Mr Assange's right to take up his asylum. While Sweden refuses to use any of the standard legal mechanisms available to question Mr Assange over allegations, the UK, whose spending on policing the Ecuadorian embassy in London today, Thursday, 5 February 2015, hits 10 million pounds, prevents him taking up his legal right to asylum.

WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson said: "It is embarrassing to see the UK Government spending more on surveillance and detaining an uncharged political refugee than on its investigation into the Iraq war, which killed hundreds of thousands."

This video was shot by filmmakers "El Colectivo", who are shooting a forthcoming documentary "The Challenge" about former investigating Judge Baltasar Garzón, who attempted to extradite Chilean dictator General Pinochet from the United Kingdom. Judge Garzón is now head of Assange's legal team and was scheduled to give a press conference later that day about the UPR and new developments in the US case against WikiLeaks and its staff.