MEXICO CITY (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th September, 2019) Former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, who granted asylum to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange back in 2012, said on Friday that a Spanish company, which provided security for the Ecuadorian embassy in London and his personal security in 2017-2019, had spied on him and his family at the request of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
"Terrible! UC Global, a Spanish security company that worked with Ecuador and provided security for the embassy in London, was bought by the CIA. They provided me security the first two years after the presidency and also spied on me and my family," Correa wrote on Twitter.
Earlier, Spanish newspaper El Pais published an article claiming that a security contractor for the Ecuadorian embassy in London had spied on Assange while he was staying in the diplomatic premises.
Assange earlier accused UC Global owner David Morales of privacy and confidentiality violations. Spain is investigating those accusations.
According to El Pais, which has seen the case file, Assange was monitored 24/7 via several cameras and microphones from December 2017 to March 2018.
On April 11, Assange was arrested in London and thereafter sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for jumping bail back in 2012, when he claimed asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy to avoid being extradited to Sweden over sexual assault charges and possibly being sent to the United States. After Assange's arrest, Washington filed a request asking London to extradite him. Hearings on Assange's extradition case are now scheduled for February 25, 2020.
Assange gained fame after WikiLeaks published a large number of classified documents in 2010, including some that exposed abuses of power and war crimes committed by US forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, and at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
