A lawyer representing jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says the Ecuadorian government has been spreading lies about his behaviour inside its embassy in London.

Key points: Lawyer Jennifer Robinson claims the Ecuadorian Government lied to justify expelling Assange from its embassy

Ecuadorian government says that Assange repeatedly broke its rules and their agreement

Assange faces a potentially lengthy legal battle in the UK courts

Jennifer Robinson told Sky News on Sunday that Ecuador was making "pretty outrageous allegations" to justify allowing British police into its embassy on Thursday in order to take Assange into custody.

Tensions between the embassy and Assange arose in recent years, with Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno saying that Assange had "repeatedly violated" the terms of his asylum in the Andean nation's embassy, including hacking private phones and accounts.

Ecuador's Interior Minister Maria Paula Romo last week said Assange had been physically harassing his caretakers at the embassy, and had even smeared his own faecal matter on the walls of the diplomatic mission.

Ecuador has also accused him of skateboarding late at night in the embassy building, playing loud music and walking around in his underwear.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested after British police were invited inside the embassy. ( Reuters: Hannah McKay )

Ms Robinson denied Assange violated the terms of his asylum, saying her client had experienced "a very difficult time" since Mr Moreno came to power in 2017.

"[After] a change of government, with Lenin Moreno coming into power … [the situation] inside the embassy became more and more difficult, to the point where even Human Rights Watch said it was akin to solitary confinement."

Assange spent seven years living in the Ecuadorian embassy after he sought asylum in 2012, claiming that an extradition request from Sweden to face several allegations of rape was politically motivated. He denies the allegations.

Mr Moreno withdrew Assange's political asylum this week, opening the way for his seizure by British police.

He is now in Belmarsh Prison in south-east London waiting to be sentenced for jumping bail in Britain in 2012 and facing an extradition request from the US on charges of conspiring to break into a Pentagon computer.

Assange and his supporters have long claimed that the Swedish rape allegations were a ploy to then allow Sweden to extradite him to the US, where he is wanted over his role in the 2010 release of confidential US government documents, including diplomatic cables and damning video of US forces killing civilians and journalists in a mistaken attack in Iraq.

They fear if he is sent to the US he could face the death penalty.

Assange 'embarrassed' US Government, lawyer says

Ms Robinson said it was clear the US's case against her client was politically motivated.

"He's embarrassed the US military industrial complex, he's embarrassed the CIA," she said.

"We've had the director of the CIA call him a 'hostile non-state intelligence agency', and in saying that he ought to be prosecuted: 'we want to take WikiLeaks down and he ought not benefit from First Amendment protections'.

"And to think that this case is not politicised, I think ignores the fact."

Sweden dropped the rape charges several years ago but is considering reopening its investigation as the statute of limitation in one case does not expire until 2020.

If Sweden does seek Assange's extradition again, several British lawmakers have urged the Government to prioritize the Swedish request over that of the US.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 2 minutes 12 seconds 2 m 12 s Who is Julian Assange and what is WikiLeaks?

WikiLeaks said Assange would fight the US extradition request and had been meeting with his legal team to plan his defence.

If the court does order his extradition, it is expected it would take a year or longer for him to be sent to the US or possibly to Sweden, even if he ultimately loses in court.

Assange will next appear in court on May 2.

AP