Some heavy-hitting news has come out of the @WikiLeaks Twitter account today. In a press conference in London today, Kristinn Hrafnsson, the WikiLeaks editor, revealed an extortion scheme where he was offered surveillance video and documents from inside the Ecuadorian embassy where Julian Assange has been held up for about 7 years. The price? €3 million.
LIVE: Wikileaks Editor in chief holds press briefing on Assange's "new criminal case"
It would be a security concern for the embassy alone if it was only documents that the embassy and Ecuador created themselves. But the plot goes deeper. The Spanish extortionists had documents from Assange's lawyers and doctors as well.
This means that not only was Assange being spied on by Ecuador through surveillance cameras, his doctors and lawyers were being spied on, where information was supposed to be guarded between the patient or client and the doctor and lawyer according to the law. Ecuador has broken these long-held laws of privacy and amassed information about Assange that they should not have been able to get.
As Hrafnsson mentioned, not even prisoners endure this type of treatment, as their rights to privacy are held in check despite their convictions as criminals. Ecuador is treating Assange worse than actual criminals, when he's the one exposing the elite criminal behaviors of governments and corporations alike.
"It is a grave and serious concern when legal meetings are being spied upon and legal documents are stolen. That is something that not even prisoners have to endure."
Instead of having his legal documents and doctors visits remain private, they have been copied and recorded, and ended up in the hands of people in Spain. Assange's lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, speaks of the breach of attorney-client privilege that was fostered by the Ecuadorian govenrment:
"The documents you have seen [presented at the press conference] demonstrates just how much surveillance he has been under and it is a breach of confidence for us, his lawyers, and his doctors to provide medical care in the embassy. This is a severe breach of attorney-client privilege and fundamentally undermines our ability to defend and provide defense to Julian Assange."
The extortionists provided samples of the cache of surveillance on Assange to Hrafnsson when 4 of them met him and offered it up for €3 million. They said others had offered up to €9 million to get their hands on the stash. Hrafnsson recorded his meeting, and reported the incident to Spanish police who are investigating.
The twisted thing in all of this, is again that the Ecuadorian government has done this in breech of the sanctity of doctor and attorney privacy with Assange who was granted asylum and later citizenship by the country. The protection formerly granted to Assange has been quickly eroding since Moreno took power in Ecuador. Hrafnsson added:
"Extortion is a serious matter, but of greater concern to me is that this is material gathered by spying by the government of Lenin Moreno and officials who work on his behalf against an individual who was granted diplomatic protection by the Ecuadorian government."
"We know from reports that this is the work of one person to service the interests of the United States government who want to indict and imprison a publisher for the crime of publishing truthful material."
And that's the rub. This surveillance was all for one ultimate goal: to get Assange extradited to the U.S. That's why Assange had the draconian protocols impose don him in March 2018, cutting him off from the world to an even greater degree and silencing him for months. The goal is to make him breach some ad hoc invented rules in order to attempt to justify his exile from the embassy, sending him into the clutches of the British authorities, and thus extradited to the U.S. shortly afterwards.
Robinson spoke about this diabolical scheme, where the would-be protectors have turned into persecutors of Assange:
"That a government would cooperate with another state to extradite a publisher for publishing truthful information outside its territory sets a dangerous precedent here in the UK and elsewhere. No one can deny that risk. That is why he sought asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy."
The former Ecuadorian consul at the embassy, Fidel Narváez, also spoke at the conference about the deceit of the Ecuadorian government and treatment of Assange:
"I very much hope that what we presented today will break the shield that currently the Ecuadorian government has built in my country ... aided by the Ecuadorian press that is not doing what it should do to challenge and question the government. There is lots of misinformation about Julian’s asylum but one thing is clear: the new government of Ecuador is not protecting Julian Assange anymore as it should."
Speaking about the impending exile of Assange that was "hours to days" from happening accoridn to a Wikileaks high level source, Narváez said:
"The only reason it hasn’t happened yet is because of the international shame that will be attached to Ecuador if it does so. The government is clearly building a case to end the asylum and what we’ve seen here is the basis for that."
"Let’s remember that Julian Assange is not serving a sentence, he doesn’t have charges. He is a political refugee. Political refugees do not lose rights. On the contrary, they should have their rights protected."
It turns out Ecuador has found out who it was that was leaking the news of Assange forthcoming exile, and fire them:
If WikiLeaks' tweet is correct, the government of Ecuador is behind it and tried to extort money from the surveillance, in addition to providing it to their American friends in their efforts to get Assange into U.S. custody.
Hopefully the Spanish police will be more impartial and less prejudiced against Assange, and will conduct a proper investigation to find out who leaked all the documents and video to the extortionists. If this was being handled by the U.K. police, I doubt we could trust the honesty of their investigation.
The U.N. looks to still beon the case of investigating Assange's treatment
Prior to that, Moreno has a meeting with schedules for April 16 in Washington, D.C.
As WikiLeaks voices their concern, could Moreno try to expel Assange before the U.N. has chance to investigate?
Posted from KURE
Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.
If you appreciate and value the content, please consider: Upvoting, Sharing or Reblogging below.
me for more content to come!
Like what I do? Then consider giving me a vote on the Witness page :) Thanks!
My goal is to share knowledge, truth and moral understanding in order to help change the world for the better. If you appreciate and value what I do, please consider supporting me as a Steem Witness by voting for me at the bottom of the Witness page.