A group of British politicians has urged the British government against prioritizing Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's extradition to the United States, DW reported.

More than 70 MPs and peers — mostly from the opposition Labour Party — wrote to Home Secretary Sajid Javid calling for the 47-year-old whistleblower to be extradited to Sweden if Swedish prosecutors reopen a rape inquiry against him.

In the letter, the MPs and peers urge the minister to "give every assistance to Sweden should they want to revive and pursue the investigation."

On Thursday, Assange was arrested by the London police in the Ecuadorian embassy in the British capital. Earlier it was reported that Ecuador decided to deny Assange asylum. Later, the UK Foreign Office thanked the Government of Ecuador for helping to arrest the founder of WikiLeaks.

In 2012, Assange sought refuge in London's Ecuadorian Embassy to escape extradition to Sweden, which had issued a warrant for his arrest on sexual harassment and rape charges. Assange dismissed the accusations as politically motivated. His worst fear was Sweden might extradite him to the United States, where he would face 35 years in prison or capital punishment for publishing classified State Department documents. The rape case was dropped in 2017 but the United Kingdom continued to insist that Assange be arrested over his failure to appear in court in London.