Former U.S. secretary of state Mike Popeo (L), and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
Madrid, June 5 (RHC)-- Spain's National High Court has summoned Mike Pompeo, former U.S. President Donald Trump's secretary of state, to explain an alleged plot by Washington to assassinate WikiLeaks founder Australian-born Julian Assange.
Judge Santiago Pedraz summoned Pompeo to appear in the Madrid court to testify in the case, investigating a local security firm suspected of being used by the CIA to spy on Assange, media reported last week. Sources close to the case reported that the Spanish security firm UC Global, while providing security for the Ecuadorian embassy in London, spied on Assange who had been holed up there for seven years.
Julian Assange, who was pulled out of the embassy and put in jail in Britain in 2019, is now fighting extradition to the United States on computer hacking and espionage charges.
In the meantime, a UK court has already issued a formal order to extradite Assange to the US where he will be facing decades in prison. The extradition order of Assange has been referred to the UK Home Secretary for a final decision.
If convicted, Assange faces up to 175 years in prison. Meanwhile, CIA allegedly plotted to kidnap the WikiLeaks founder in 2017 when he was still holed up in Ecuador’s embassy in London. Yahoo News reported last year that some senior officials inside the CIA and the Trump administration had discussed Assange's assassination, going so far as to request “sketches” or “options” for how to kill him.
Discussions over kidnapping or killing Assange occurred “at the highest levels” of the Trump administration, said a former senior counterintelligence official. “There seemed to be no boundaries.”
Judge Pedraz summoned Pompeo and former U.S. counterintelligence official William Evanina as witnesses to explain whether the plot was drawn up. They must appear in court and can testify via videoconference.
Julian Assange drew the anger of U.S. officials after WikiLeaks published a plethora of secret U.S. records, including classified military and diplomatic files revealing US' diabolical activities that proved highly embarrassing for Washington.
