Haroon Siddique has filed for us from outside the Ecuadorian embassy in London:

Julian Assange has said that the battle is over but the war has just begun after Swedish prosecutors dropped their investigations into allegations of rape against the WikiLeaks founder.

Standing on the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy, Assange lambasted the Metropolitan police’s threat to arrest him on charges of skipping bail as “untenable”.

There were a few cheers as Assange emerged, clad in a brown leather jacket and raising a clenched fist, but his supporters were vastly outnumbered by the world’s media.

He said: “Today is an important victory for me and for the UN’s human rights system but it by no means erases the years of detention without charge in prison, under house arrest and almost five years here in this embassy without sunlight, seven years without charge while my children grew up without me. And that is not something I can forget, it is not something I can forgive.”



Reporters and photographers were joined by curious passersby and tourists as the crowd swelled during the day after the Swedish announcement on Friday morning. Assange kept the throng waiting until seven hours after that announcement before addressing them.



In a speech lasting about 10 minutes that was frequently interrupted by a heckler shouting “What is the truth?” and comparing Assange to the central character in Monty Python’s Life of Brian, the WikiLeaks founder took aim at Sweden, the UK, the EU - specifically its extradition system - and the US.



“While today is an important victory and an important vindication, the road is far from over, the proper war is just commencing,” he said. “The claim by the UK that it has a right to arrest me for seeking asylum in a case where there have been no charges is simply untenable.”

Assange said a more important victory was the release of Chelsea Manning earlier this week. He made no mention of the woman who accused him of rape.

