Assange anti-hero claims rejected

A former campaign director for the Wikileaks party has hit out at claims by two senior parliamentary frontbenchers that Julian Assange put lives at risk.

Cabinet Minister Christopher Pyne and Labor frontbencher Richard Marles were commenting after a UN panel declared that the Wikileaks founder has been arbitrarily detained and should be allowed to walk free.

They said on their Sky News TV show on Saturday that Mr Assange had put a whole lot of peoples' lives at risk, including Australian service personnel, and was "no hero".

Barrister Greg Barns, who was campaign director for the WikiLeaks Party, told Sky News there was no evidence that information released by Mr Assange about the Afghanistan and Iraq wars had put lives in jeopardy.