Julian Assange's lawyers denounce the CIA for "illegally eavesdropping on their conversations"

MADRID, 16 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's lawyers announced Monday that they have filed a lawsuit against former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director Michael Pompeo, because they "illegally spied on his conversations" with copies of his devices and the subsequent distribution of the obtained data to the Trump administration.

The plaintiffs -- a group of American lawyers and journalists -- have alleged that their information was stolen between 2017 and 2018, when they handed over their computers and phones to a security company (UC Global, based in Spain) during visits they were making. to Assange when he was in the Ecuadorian embassy in London under political asylum.

Such actions, the plaintiffs say, violate their rights against unlawful search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution.

The lawsuit, filed in New York City, alleges that security company employees, "acting without the knowledge of the Ecuadorian government," copied visitor information -- without their knowledge or consent -- and provided it to the CIA. "These actions were authorized and approved by defendant Pompeo," they noted in the document.

Assange has been imprisoned in the UK since April 2019, when he was arrested after nearly seven years in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. The founder of Wikileaks initially took refuge in the Embassy to avoid his possible extradition to Sweden, where he was also being investigated, and fearing that it was a first step towards the United States.