Britain has refused Ecuador’s request to give Julian Assange safe passage for a medical checkup after he had a sharp pain in his right shoulder, Quito’s top diplomat said Wednesday.

Britain has refused Ecuador's request to give Julian Assange safe passage for a medical checkup after he had a sharp pain in his right shoulder, Quito's top diplomat said Wednesday.

The WikiLeaks founder has been holed up in the Ecuadoran embassy in London since 2012, seeking to avoid extradition to Sweden.

"We did ask the British government for a safe passage for humanitarian reasons in coordination with Ecuador, so that Julian Assange can get an MRI," Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino told a briefing in Quito.

"The reply we have had from Britain is that he can leave whenever he likes for any medical care he might need but the European arrest warrant for Assange is still valid. In other words, he can leave -- and we will put him in jail," Patino added.

The 44-year-old Australian also fears that if he leaves he could eventually face extradition to the United States and a trial over the leak of hundreds of thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents in 2010.