Élysée Palace, official residence of President of French Republic, on Friday, turned down Julian Assange, Wikileaks founder’s request for safe haven in France as “humanitarian and symbolic gesture.’’

The letter was addressed to French President Francois Hollande and published in newspaper Le Monde.

In it, Assange said “only France now has the ability to offer me the necessary protection against, and exclusively against, the political persecution that I am currently the object of.”

Assange also said the move would send a message of encouragement to all the journalists and whistleblowers around the world “who risk their lives every day to allow their co-citizens to take a step closer to the truth.”

The Elysee Palace declined Assange’s appeal in a statement released in Paris, shortly after the letter was published.

The palace said that France cannot act on the request “on account of the legal elements and material situation of Mr Assange.

It said it was apparent that Assange was not in immediate danger and noted that there was a European arrest warrant out on him.

Assange, an Australian national, has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since June 19, 2012.

He fled there to avoid extradition to Sweden, where prosecutors have an arrest warrant out for him after two women accused him of sexual assault.

Assange has denied wrongdoing and has taken his case to the Swedish Supreme Court, which rejected his request to list the arrest warrant.

Ecuador granted Assange asylum after he said he feared further extradition to the U.S., where he was wanted in connection with WikiLeaks’ publication of top secret diplomatic cables.

A raft of documents published by WikiLeaks last week outlined secret French diplomatic and political information obtained by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), through its spying programme.

The documents included private conversations by three successive French Presidents and caused a firestorm of political backlash in France.