The founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, was moved to the medical department of the UK Belmarsh prison amid 'grave concerns' for his health, Daily Mail reported.

The WikiLeaks founder is said to have suffered 'dramatic weightloss' and continued ill health since being jailed for 50 weeks for skipping bail back in 2012.

'Defence lawyer for Assange, Per Samuelson said that Julian Assange's health state last Friday was such 'that it was not possible to conduct a normal conversation with him,” the statement said.

Regular hearings in the case of the extradition of Assange will be held on Thursday in the Magistrate’s Court in London Westminster District.

Assange, convicted of sexual harassment and rape in Sweden in 2010, has been hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy since June 2012, fearing extradition to a Scandinavian country. On the morning of April 11, 2019, he was detained on orders from Sweden and the US. A court in London found him guilty of violating bail conditions and sentenced him to 11 months in prison. Extradition hearings kicked off on May 2.

Now the court expects a full package of documents from the US that would allow it to decide whether to allow the release of the defendant to the United States.