Julian Assange arrested in London after Ecuador withdraws his asylum

Julian Assange has been arrested in London after Ecuador withdrew his asylum.

The fugitive founder of WikiLeaks was wanted by British police for skipping bail in August 2012, while he was under investigation for sexual assault and rape in Sweden, and had lived since then in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, reported NBC News.

The Australian had long complained that he would eventually be extradited to the U.S. to face charges if he was forced to surrender.

The 47-year-old Assange and WikiLeaks have been implicated by U.S. intelligence services and special counsel Robert Mueller in a scheme to release emails hacked by Russian intelligence from the Democratic National Committee.

President Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen has testified before Congress that Assange had been in contact with Republican operative Roger Stone to coordinate the release of the stolen emails during the 2016 campaign.

Assange has insisted the hacked emails had not come from Russia.

Sweden eventually dropped its investigation of Assange, and he is no longer wanted by authorities there, but London's Metropolitan Police said he would be arrested for violating his bail if he ever left the embassy.

Assange became an Ecuadorian citizen last year but had quarreled with embassy staff for years, especially in recent months.