Assange lawyers sue CIA for alleged spying

They said the CIA worked with a security firm contracted by the Ecuadoran embassy in London, where. Assange was living at the time, to spy on the Wikileaks founder, his lawyers, journalists and others he met with…reports Asian Lite News

The lawyers for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange have filed a lawsuit against the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States and its former director Mike Pompeo on August 15, media reported.

The lawyers alleged that the agency recorded their conversations and copied data from their phones and computers.

The suit named the CIA, former CIA director and former US Secretary of State Pompeo, and the security firm Undercover Global and its chief executive David Morales Guillen, according to an AFP report.

The attorneys, along with two journalists also joining the suit, are Americans and allege that the CIA violated their US constitutional protections for confidential discussions with Assange, who is Australian.

They said the CIA worked with a security firm contracted by the Ecuadoran embassy in London, where. Assange was living at the time, to spy on the Wikileaks founder, his lawyers, journalists and others he met with.

In June, UK’s Home Secretary Priti Patel approved Assange’s extradition to the US, noting that the courts found that the measure would not be “incompatible with his human rights”. Later, Assange appealed against the extradition which set stage for months of further legal wrangling.

The charges on the WikiLeaks founder are related to the publication in 2010 and 2011 by WikiLeaks of a huge trove of classified material that painted a bleak picture of the American military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, and their aftermath.

Robert Boyle, a New York attorney representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said the alleged spying on Assange’s attorneys means the Wikileaks founder’s right to a fair trial has “now been tainted, if not destroyed.”

“The recording of meetings with friends, with lawyers and the copying of his attorneys’ and friends’ digital information taints the criminal prosecution because now the government knows the contents of those communications,” Mr. Boyle told reporters.

“There should be sanctions, even up to dismissal of those charges, or withdrawal of an extradition request in response to these blatantly unconstitutional activities,” he said.

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