Ecuador Claims U.K. Agency Bugged Embassy Housing Wikileaks Founder Assange
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is a wanted man, perhaps even moreso than he realized. The nation of Ecuador, which has been housing Assange in its London embassy for over a year, has now come out to say that its office for the Ambassador to the United Kingdom has been bugged.
A microphone was reportedly installed on the inside of an electrical outlet in the office of Ambassador Ana Alban. Ecuadorian authorities state that they first found the bug Jun. 16 after technicians came in to review the embassy's wiring.
"I didn't denounce this at the time because we didn't want the theme of our visit to London to be confused with this matter," Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said in a press conference Wednesday. "Furthermore, we first wanted to ascertain with precision what could be the origin of this interception device in the office of our ambassador."
The discovery of the microphone came just days before the foreign minister was scheduled to visit Assange in the embassy. It is not known when the the bug was first installed, though Patino is fairly certain he knows who did it.
"We have reason to believe that the bugging was carried out by The Surveillance Group Limited, one of the largest private investigation and covert surveillance companies in the United Kingdom," Patino said.
Assange lives and works in a different room from where the corrupted outlet was found, though it is almost assuredly his presence that prompted the bugging. As for The Surveillance Group, they denied all claims of wrongdoing in the matter.
"We have this morning heard an accusation the source of which is apparently Ricardo Patino, the Ecuadorian foreign minister, suggesting that we have bugged the Ecuadorian embassy. This is completely untrue," The Surveillance Group said.
The bug was operated by a sim card and could be activated simply by a phone call. Ecuador has said that they will be in talks with Britain's government while investigating the matter, though it is likely that Britain itself may have had some responsibility for bugging the office in the first place.
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