Donald Trump’s former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has been summoned by a Spanish court to explain an alleged CIA plot to assassinate Julian Assange, according to a Spanish national daily newspaper ABC.
A court is probing whether a Spanish security firm, UC Global spied on Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy during his time there between 2012 and 2019. Pompeo is being asked to testify whether the US received information from the firm.
Pompeo called to give evidence in Assange assassination plot
According to ABC, Pompeo has been called to appear in June. It is not clear whether he will attend in person or via video link. The judge at the National High Court, Santiago Pedraz also summoned former US counterintelligence official William Evaninia as a witness. He is reported to have made statements supporting the assassination reports.
The assassination plot was first revealed by Yahoo News last year and was reported in Yorkshire Bylines in September. Since the revelations were reported, the UK government and intelligence services have refused to comment; failing to confirm or deny their involvement.
Aitor Martinez, a lawyer for Assange, previously claimed in court documents that the alleged spying plot “would have been orchestrated from the United States”.
Assange still awaiting deportation decision
Meanwhile Home Secretary Priti Patel is currently considering Assange’s deportation to the US where he faces trial under the Espionage Act. WikiLeaks stated on Twitter on 5 June that Patel will imminently announce whether she is granting an extradition order. Given the intense hostility of the British government to Assange, many believe that the outcome is all but a formality. On paper, he has one other avenue of appeal within the legal system, but more than a decade of arbitrary attacks on his rights means that even this is not guaranteed.
In Australia, the newly elected Labor government gives the impression that it will do nothing to defend the WikiLeaks publisher, despite Assange being an Australian citizen.
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