A Spanish private security firm, tasked with protecting the Ecuadorian Embassy in London between 2012 and 2017, spied on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on a round-the-clock basis as he took refuge in the embassy, the Spanish newspaper El Pais reports.
The newspaper obtained documents, videos, and audio recordings confirming that employees from the security company Undercover Global S. L. collected information about Assange, as well as his lawyers and assistants.
The documents are specifically related to Assange’s meeting with his supporters during which his defence strategy was being discussed.
The Assange team, in particular, planned to help the WikiLeaks founder move from the Ecuadorian Embassy to Russia or Cuba, according to the newspaper. At the end of the day, “these secret projects were not implemented due to the unwillingness of Assange who considered them ‘a defeat’”, El Pais reported.
Undercover Global S. L. employees’ push to spy on the “guest”, as they called Assange, intensified under Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno.
“Assange’s paranoia with being spied on prompted him to meet some of his visitors in the ladies’ room, a place he considered safe”, the newspaper reported.
The information obtained by Undercover Global S. L. employees was delivered to the company’s owner David Morales, who declined to confirm whether his firm had spied on Assange.