Assange broke into Ecuadorian embassy communications system

According to sources from The Guardian and an Ecuadorian site, WikiLeaks foreman Julian Assange broke into the communications system of Ecuador’s embassy in London several years ago. WikiLeaks disputes this and accuses the newspaper of defamation.

The Guardian, together with Focus Ecuador, conducted an investigation based on anonymous sources and documents, which alleged that Assange was able to set up his own satellite link and that he had access to the embassy’s communications system. He is also said to have “breached the embassy’s firewall”, giving him access to communications from embassy staff. WikiLeaks fights in a tweet that Assange was able to do this and describes the publication of the newspaper as “anonymous slander”, while Assange would not be able to defend himself against it. The organization says it wants to start a lawsuit.

According to the newspaper, over the course of Assange’s stay, the embassy had built a surveillance project around him, the cost of which would have risen to around £3.7 million, or €4.2 million, in five years. Known first as “operation guest” and then “operation hotel,” the operation is said to have cost the Ecuadorian intelligence agency Senain about $55,000 a month in security, intelligence gathering and “counter-espionage.” This was achieved, among other things, by installing surveillance cameras and hiring a 24-hour security team to monitor Assange’s activities.

That team reportedly informed the embassy in 2014 that Assange was intercepting communications from embassy staff. In a separate article, The Guardian writes that the surveillance project, originally designed to keep Assange safe, was used over time to keep an eye on him, and the relationship between the “guest” and his hosts was gradually deteriorating.

Assange has been present in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012, after the government granted him asylum. Sweden had previously requested the United Kingdom to arrest Assange, because he was suspected of committing sex crimes in the Scandinavian country. In 2017, Sweden withdrew its arrest warrant, but the UK stuck to its intention to arrest Assange for violating the terms of his release. The Guardian writes that Assange has had no internet access since March and that he has also been banned from receiving visitors for a month.