Julian Assange to be handed over to UK officials: Report

Ecuador officials are planning to withdraw asylum protection for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and hand him over to British authorities.

Lenin Moreno, Ecuador's president, met with British officials in London Friday to finalize the agreement, according to the Intercept.

Assange has been at the embassy since 2012 and will be handed over to the British government within a few weeks. He may be kicked out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London as early as this week, the Intercept's Glenn Greenwald reported.

Assange first came to the embassy when he faced a warrant for arrest following allegations of sexual assault and rape from the Swedish government. He has denied the allegations, and the investigation was closed last year.

He has stayed in hiding out of concern that he would be sent to the U.S. to be prosecuted for publishing classified documents that were leaked by Chelsea Manning. WikiLeaks has also been at the center of the FBI investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

During the last three months, Assange has been blocked from accessing the Internet, with officials saying that he violated an agreement not to intervene in state affairs. He angered Spanish officials when he tweeted support for separatist leaders in Catalonia who sought to secede last year.

Moreno, who was elected in May, has called Assange an "inherited problem" and a "stone in the shoe."

Greenwald, a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist who writes extensively about national security and human rights, wrote that Moreno will also be traveling to Spain.