Ecuador recorded the private conversations of Assange in the embassy and was made with confidential documents.
A security company recorded the audio of their appointments with the lawyers, recorded him in private rooms, and made copies of the passports of those who visited him.
Some Spanish citizens tried to sell all that material to Wikileaks for three million euros with the threat of handing it over to the press.
Assange has filed a complaint in the National Court in which it says that Ecuador expelled him after Wikileaks denounced the espionage.
The Government of Ecuador recorded the movements of Julian Assange in his embassy in London through the cameras installed by UC Global, the company that supposedly was in charge of protecting him. But the company that replaced this in the work of control of the founder of Wikileaks went further. The Ecuadorian company Promsecurity also recorded the audio of its private conversations, including those it had with its lawyers. In addition, those who watched the uncomfortable guest in the diplomatic delegation photographed the passports of those who visited him and the confidential documents he handled.
This is reflected in the complaint filed by the law firm Ilocad on behalf of Assange and Kristinn Hrafnsson, director of Wikileaks, in the National Court and to which he has had access to eldiario.es. The document also reports that a group of Spanish citizens - who are behind the company Agencia6 - tried to extort money from the organization founded by Assange: they asked for three million euros in exchange for a huge amount of recordings and documents obtained through of that espionage with the threat of passing them on to the media.
The conclusion is that the last two governments of Ecuador spied Assange's movements through the firm UC Global Security Consulting, a company based in Jerez that only recorded video inside some common units of the embassy in London. Assange was sheltered there since 2012 with asylee status, but the situation changed as of May 2017, his lawyers denounce, when Lenin Moreno was elected president of Ecuador and increased hostility toward the founder of Wikileaks.
This organization was aware that the vigilance over its founder had increased because some Spanish citizens tried to extort them with enormous documentation. A few months ago, Hrafnsson saw that a Twitter account publicly offered private documentation about Assange, so he contacted the person behind that profile. He was a Spanish resident in Alicante who told him that he had audio, videos and "sensitive documentation" about Assange.
Hrafnsson continued with the communications and asked to know that material. They replied that this had "a price" and in a later email they set that amount at three million euros. In other exchanges they sent examples of the material they possessed, such as capturing videos of Hrafnsson himself at the embassy or a photograph of a document with annotations drawn up by Assange's lawyers.
The director of Wikileaks continued asking for more evidence to know what material it was. Thus, they sent a recording of the computer screen in which they made a tour of dozens of folders with documentation. There was one with photos of identity documents and passports, another with a multitude of images captured by security cameras -some in private rooms- and audios by Assange himself.
The video also shows that they have personal emails from Assange with collaborators or a folder -which does not open in the recording- that suggests that they also obtained WhatsApp messages from the mobile phones of those who visited them. Another of the folders was called "Comunicaciones Baltasar Garzón" and allegedly contained Assange conversations with the former Spanish judge who coordinates his defense. Another file, which does not open either, was called Senain (National Secretary of Intelligence of Ecuador).
The alleged extortionists also sent Hrafnsson a detailed list with all the material they possessed with a brief description on the side. This document includes a summary of an alleged audio recorded to the first secretary of the embassy of Ecuador by the microphones installed in the legation. In it, this high office says that "none of this can come to light or else Julian will take legal action against the embassy." He adds that the members of the espionage company must be protected.
Hrafnsson and the alleged extortionists came to hold a meeting in Madrid, where the director of Wikileaks accessed a computer to check first hand the huge amount of information held by Spanish citizens. The meeting took place on April 2, as recorded in the complaint, and after him Hrafnsson went to the office of lawyer Ilocad to tell them what happened. They decided to put the facts to the attention of the police, who came to record with microphones a second meeting with the extortionate budgets, but has not yet practiced any detention. These inquiries are investigated under summary secrecy in a court in Madrid.
In an email dated April 4, the alleged perpetrators of the extortion warn that they have noticed the police follow-up, so they have raised the protection of their documents. In another subsequent communication they reduce the price of this information by half.
Wikileaks decided to publicly denounce the facts. In a press conference on April 10, Hrafnsson exposed what happened and showed a video that he had recorded with his mobile in his jacket pocket. In one of the recordings made to Assange at the embassy, those who demanded the payment of the money in exchange for the information superimposed the logo of their company: Agencia6. A search on the internet leads to a news website created just a few weeks ago.
They also have a Youtube channel where they have uploaded some of the videos recorded to Assange in the embassy to promote the material they have in their possession. In the videos you can see the founder of Wikileaks walking around the embassy, playing with his cat or holding meetings. There are also audio fragments that prove that their conversations were recorded.
eldiario.es has contacted the head of that company, who identifies himself as 'Pepe' and is the person with whom Hrafnsson tried. He accuses the Wikileaks director of having stolen documents: "This man is a terrorist of information, they have left us like mafias". He assures that they tried to collaborate with the embassy to demonstrate the security problems that there were.
She affirms that they are journalists who got an information and recognizes that at first she asked for money for her: "At the beginning she was told that it had a price, I had an exclusive and I want to sell it, that in Spain is legal, but then He offered everything for free. " Ensures that after their last meeting, Hrafnsson thanked them for not posting anything.
Assange was expelled at 24 hours The day after the Wikileaks press conference denouncing espionage, Ecuador expelled Assange from the embassy and handed it to the British authorities. On May 2 he faces an extradition hearing to the United States. The same day of the expulsion, José Valencia Amores, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility of Ecuador, gave an interview on the Ser network. He accused Assange of having behaved badly: "He has made false accusations about Ecuador ... About all made accusations of espionage against officials of Ecuador. " The complaint maintains that these accusations had a basis.
The complaint filed in the National Court includes all these facts and points, in addition to the extortionists, the staff of the Embassy of Ecuador in London, the company in charge of security in the legation, Promsecurity, and other officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Foreign and Human Mobility of Ecuador. The brief, presented by Ilocad, justifies that the competence is of the National Court and points to possible crimes of criminal organization, extortion and against privacy, honor and secrecy of communications between lawyer and client.
Assange is, since last April 11, in a maximum security prison in the United Kingdom waiting for extradition to the US, to be investigated in the cause of the revelations of Chelsea Manning. This Thursday, Joe Cannataci, special rapporteur of the United Nations on the right to privacy, has met with the founder of Wikileaks. In statements to the media, he insisted on the importance of his investigation, which suggests that a person who was not formally detained was subjected to surveillance.
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