‘American friends’ spied on Julian Assange in Ecuadorian Embassy, court hears

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Former employees of security company UC Global claimed today that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was subject to surveillance at the Ecuadorian Embassy by the US.

Two employees, who have been granted anonymity, claimed in witness statements read out in court that the company’s owner, David Morales, was passing information on Assange to the US intelligence services.

Their claims are the subject of investigation by a magistrate at the Audiencia Nacional court in Madrid following a complaint by Assange.

The witnesses were granted anonymity by judge Vanessa Baraitser yesterday. She said disclosing the names of the Spanish witness would undermine the Spanish court, which had given the witnesses protected status.

The court heard that the witnesses feared for their safety and the safety of their families, and were concerned they could face reprisals from Morales, after police discovered unmarked firearms in his home.

According to one witness, who joined UC Global as an IT expert in February 2015, Morales boasted about moving into the “big league” following a trip to the US.

Morales sent the expert, known as Witness 2, a Telegram message saying that UC Global was being vetted by “friends of the US” and everything needed to be encrypted.

Morales won a contract from Sheldon Adelson, a close contact of US president Donald Trump and founder of the casino group Las Vegas Sands, to provide security services to Adelson’s family when they visited Europe.

The witness claimed Morales became obsessed with collecting as much information as possible from the Ecuadorian Embassy following Trump’s election in 2016.

The IT worker was asked to form a taskforce to “obtain, organise systematically and process the information from the embassy that David Morales requested”.

Morales claimed that UC Global’s contract required the embassy CCTV cameras to be changed every three years, but the witness said the claim made no sense.

At the time, the embassy CCTV cameras did not record sound – Morales instructed the IT specialist to find cameras that could secretly record sound.

UC Global security staff replaced CCTC cameras in the embassy with cameras capable of recording conversations

The specialist installed the new cameras with a colleague in December 2017.

“I was instructed by Morales not to inform anyone of the details of the recording system. I was also told to deny – in the event that I was asked – that the cameras recorded sound as he had indicated to us that this was imperative and had come ‘from powers above’.”

In June 2017, Morales asked the IT expert to create a streaming service so that “American friends” could access the cameras in real time.

“This request alarmed me a great deal and, as such, I didn’t carry out his request. I used the excuse that technically speaking it was not possible,” the witness said.

Morales later sent the witness a PowerPoint presentation written in English giving instructions on how to set up live streaming. The witness, who believed the document had been supplied by the US, refused to comply as the request was manifestly illegal.

In 2018, Morales asked the IT specialist to install a microphone in the meeting room used by Assange in the embassy in the base of a PVC fire extinguisher. Another bug was hidden in a plug and left in the lady’s bathroom of the embassy, which was used by Assange for private meetings.

David Morales arranged for a microphone to be installed in the base of a fire extinguisher in a meeting room used by Julian Assange

Morales made it clear that he wanted the whole embassy bugged after returning from a trip to the US, but the plan was not carried out when the IT expert challenged its legality.

Morales said the intention was to record conversations with Assange and his visitors, particularly his defence lawyers led by Baltasar Garzón, on behalf of “the Americans”.

Morales had asked the witness to take photographs of objects within the embassy, later explaining that he intended to copy the items and have microphones installed.

David Morales asked his staff to take photographs of objects in the embassy with the intention of copying the items and having microphones installed

Morales also asked the UC Global staff working in the embassy to take Assange’s fingerprints from a cup he had used and steal documents from Assange.

In December 2017, Morales asked the witness to “steal a nappy” from a baby that was regularly taken to visit Assange. “This was done so that afterwards they could do a DNA test on the baby’s faeces to find out whether the baby was Mr Assange’s son,” the witness said.

Morales said the Americans wanted to find out the truth.

The witness approached the baby’s mother outside the embassy and told her about the plan.

The case continues.


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