London – Lawyers and two reporters representing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange accuse the CIA and its former director, Mike Pompeo, of spying.
The journalist’s defense filed suit Monday, alleging that the US agency violated Assange’s constitutional right to record conversations with visitors, as well as to protect confidential conversations between clients and lawyers.
The complaint is used by supporters of Australia to pressure President Joe Biden to drop the charges against him and release him from prison. Assange, who has been detained in London since 2019, can be extradited from the UK to the US at any time.
CIA worked with company to spy on Assange
Assange’s lawyers allege that the CIA, under Pompeo’s command, had access to the journalist’s private conversations through a security firm hired by the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where the WikiLeaks founder had taken refuge at the time.
The case reportedly recorded conversations Assange had with his legal team, two American journalists and others who had visited him, by Undercover Global, who has served at the embassy since 2017. copied.
US lawyers representing Julian Assange sued Trump’s CIA director Mike Pompeo for illegally spying on his speeches
View the full complaint filed in the Southern District of New York on Monday https://t.co/Tf1PDiV9wb pic.twitter.com/wpiKeMf9lr
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) 15 August 2022
The lawsuit was filed in New York court by lawyers Margaret Ratner Kunstler and Deborah Hrbek, who were part of Assange’s US defense, and journalists Charles Glass and John Goetz.
The four are Americans and visited the WikiLeaks founder at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
According to the document, everyone brings electronic devices (cell phones, notebooks, etc.) to Assange each time they visit.
Acting without the knowledge of the Ecuadorian government, UC Global employees copied the information stored on the devices.
UC Global later provided this information to the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which was then headed by defendant Michael Pompeo. These actions are authorized and approved by Pompeo.
The reported practices violate the rights of more than 100 U.S. citizens who visited Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, including the lawyers who represented him, the journalists who came to interview him, and even the doctors who treated him.”
Also, according to the lawsuit, the company would install microphones and security cameras in the embassy building to record Assange’s conversations. The material was also sent to the CIA.
Lawyers point out that all these actions of the intelligence agency violate the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution, which protects the privacy of American citizens.
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“The recording of conversations with friends, lawyers, and the copying of digital information of their defenders and visitors pollute the criminal process because the government now knows the content of those communications,” said Robert Boyle, Assange’s attorney representing the group in the case. against the CIA.
“In response to these clearly unconstitutional activities, there must be sanctions, even the withdrawal of these charges or a request for extradition,” he said.
Echoing Boyle’s speech, NGO Article 19 was one of those who opposed the CIA’s alleged actions:
“When the CIA spied on Julian Assange, his lawyers, and 2 other journalists, it violated the rights to privacy and freedom of expression as well as betraying the US Constitution. A lawyer in the case says Assange’s right to a fair trial is ‘tainted if not destroyed’.
When the CIA spies #Julian Assange lawyers + 2 journalists violated their privacy rights and #Freedom of expression + He betrayed the US constitution. A lawyer involved in the case says Assange’s right to a fair trial is “tainted if not destroyed”.
https://t.co/mlNKpG93zL pic.twitter.com/wLATpShI1P— ARTICLE 19 (@article19org) 16 August 2022
CIA tried to kidnap and kill Assange
The saga of WikiLeaks’ founder began in 2010, when the site published data and official documents kept under cover of American military actions abroad.
In 2012, Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he remained for seven years and was, according to lawyers, spied on by the CIA.
Around the same time, a report by Yahoo last year showed that the agency was considering kidnapping and killing the activist in 2017.
At the time, Assange was entering his fifth year of asylum at the embassy, and Trump administration officials were debating the legality and viability of the operation to remove the journalist from the site, according to the investigation.
Senior CIA and Trump administration officials asked for “sketches” of how to assassinate him.
Discussions about Assange’s kidnapping and possible assassination are taking place “at the highest levels” of the Trump administration, a former counterintelligence official told Yahoo. “There seemed to be no boundaries,” he said.
Also Read | CIA considered kidnapping and killing Julian Assange from London embassy, allegedly
Two years after this incident, which was disclosed by Yahoo, Assange was forced out of the embassy to be arrested by the British police – and confusion began over his extradition.
The UK authorized the extradition of the WikiLeaks founder only in June of this year, with the US State Department’s victory.
After the decision, Julian Assange’s lawyers appeal to avoid sending him to the United States, where he could face up to 175 years in prison.
As the British front slowly advances, the journalist’s defense tries other possibilities, such as a new lawsuit against the CIA.
There is also the option to be sent to do duty in Australia. the government has not intervened so far to make this happen.
Another possibility is to file an application with the European Court of Human Rights, which lawyers expect at a press conference in October. But as the UK is no longer part of the European Union, there is no guarantee that it will consider it.
Also Read | Julian Assange’s 51st birthday marred by extradition protests
source: Noticias
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