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Secret filming of Julian Assange ‘deeply concerning’: ALA
The secret filming of Julian Assange’s confidential conferences with his lawyers in the Ecuadorian embassy is a “deeply concerning development”, according to the Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA).
Tony Zhang
The US government and WikiLeaks founder Mr Assange faced off in a high-security London courthouse last night, a decade after WikiLeaks infuriated American officials by publishing a trove of classified military documents.
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However, Mr Assange’s extradition trial is expected to air allegations that the US government broke international law and acted improperly in its decade-long pursuit of the WikiLeaks founder.
“All individuals have the right to confer with their legal advisers in confidence. This is a fundamental principle of the legal system and a basic legal right,” said Andrew Christopoulos, national president, ALA.
“It does not matter who that person is, or what they are alleged to have done.”
In what will be known as “Operation Hotel”, Australian lawyers were among those spied on including barrister Geoffrey Robertson QC and long-time WikiLeaks adviser Jennifer Robinson was one of the other Australian lawyers caught in the spying operation.
Mr Robertson had described the recordings as a “breach of privacy, a breach of lawyer confidentiality” and “illegal”.
A security company that had embedded the espionage in the Ecuadorian embassy during Mr Assange’s residence is under investigation.
A Spanish court has heard allegations that private security firm Undercover Global installed microphones and cameras inside the embassy to spy on Mr Assange’s meetings with his lawyers.
Mr Assange’s legal team will argue that the spying denied him the privacy to plan his own defence against extradition.
“We call on Attorney-General, Christian Porter and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Marise Payne to condemn this behaviour and to raise this issue with their US counterparts,” Mr Christopoulos said.
“Julian Assange is an Australian citizen who has had his right to confidential communications with his legal team breached.”
There has been a flurry of activity relating to Mr Assange after the court had heard Mr Assange was offered a US presidential pardon if he agreed to conceal Russia as a source of the DNC leaks in 2016.
Furthermore, Mr Assange’s legal team has confirmed that they will try to seek asylum in France last Friday.
Mr Assange has been indicted in the US on 18 charges over the publication of classified documents.
Prosecutors say he conspired with US army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to hack into a Pentagon computer and release hundreds of thousands of secret diplomatic cables and military files on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The combined charges will carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison.
“This breach sets a dangerous precedent that will erode confidence in the legal proceedings. The revelation confirms the ALA’s view that the Assange extradition proceedings must end,” Mr Christopoulos said.
Last year the ALA moved a motion at its national conference calling for the Australian government to do all it can to bring Mr Assange back to Australia and to resist attempts by the US to extradite him.
“This is an important issue about the rule of law and protecting an Australian who is in a vulnerable position overseas,” said Mr Christopoulos.
A hearing to decide whether the Australian will be extradited to the US had begun at London’s Woolwich Crown Court last night on 24 February for a week, with the remaining three weeks taking place from May 18.
