The founder of Wikileaks, journalist Julian Assange, will not be released from the London prison where he has been held for a year despite the risks posed by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Westminster Magistrates' Court in London has rejected a plea from the Assange defense team calling on the British authorities to release their client from the high-security Belmarsh prison. 

Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled that the Wikileaks founder should remain in prison until his case is heard, despite this could happen many months from now.

​Assange's lawyers said that their client's health was at stake in prison.

Assange was arrested by the British authorities last year when Ecuador President Lenin Moreno announced that they were expelling him from their embassy in London. 

Assange is waiting for a trial that could see him extradited to the United States.