American lawyers of the founder of the site Wikileaksfrom Julian Assangeannounced Monday yesterday that they filed a lawsuit against her CIA and his former manager Mike Pompeowhom they accuse of intercepting their telephone conversations and copying the contents of their mobile phones and computers.

The lawyers and two journalists involved in the trial are all American and say the US intelligence agency violated their constitutional right to protect their private conversations with Julian Assange, who is Australian.

They allege that the CIA was working with a foreign security firm hired by the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where Julian Assange hid for seven years, to spy on the founder of WikiLeaks, members of his defense team, journalists and others he met.

Assange faces extradition from the UK to the US, where authorities want to try him for “espionage” in connection with the release of more than 700,000 confidential and secret US diplomatic and military documents, mostly about the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

According to lawyer Robert Boyle, who represents the complainants, the espionage they claim they have been subjected to also means Mr Assange’s right to a fair trial has been “impaired” because “the government knows the content of the conversations” he had with their lawyers. as he pointed out to reporters.

“There must be sanctions, as well as the dismissal of charges or the withdrawal of the extradition request in response to these actions, which were clearly unconstitutional,” he ruled.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of lawyers Margaret Ratner Kunstler and Deborah Herbeck, as well as journalists Charles Glass and John Gage.

They target the CIA, its former director and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the security firm Undercover Global and its chairman David Morales Guillen.

According to the lawsuit, the Spanish company Undercover Global, under contract to the Ecuadorian embassy in the British capital, collected information on behalf of the CIA from the plaintiffs’ devices, in particular their conversations with Mr. Assange, and placed microphones inside the building, the recordings of which, as well as footage from closed surveillance system were also sent to US intelligence.

Mr. Pompeo “knew about this intelligence gathering and authorized it,” according to the indictment, which says Undercover Global was recruited by the CIA in 2017.

Julian Assange has appealed the British government’s decision to grant the US extradition request.

If found guilty, he could face up to 175 years in prison.

^{Source: APE-MEB, AFP.}