MADRID: Julian Assange has asked Spain to hand a 20-year jail sentence to the head of a security firm who spied on the Wikileaks founder for the United States.
Assange’s lawyers suggested the jail term for David Morales, accused of discovery and disclosure of secrets, bribery, money laundering and illegal possession of weapons, in a statement seen by AFP on Saturday.
Assange was released from a high-security British prison last June after a plea bargain with the US government over Wikileaks’s work publishing top-secret military and diplomatic information.
He had spent five years behind bars fighting extradition from Britain and another seven holed up in the Ecuador embassy in London where he claimed political asylum.
Between 2015 and 2018, the Spanish company Undercover Global oversaw the embassy’s security.
It is owned by Morales, a former military officer who is awaiting trial in Spain.
Assange’s defense argues that in 2016, Morales and US authorities established contact regarding the passing of information about Assange.
A Spanish court concluded that Morales allegedly spied on Assange and handed over “illegally obtained information” about him and other personalities, including several Latin American presidents, with whom he had contact.
The judge said in 2017, Morales installed new security cameras which, unlike the previous ones, recorded confidential conversations the activist had with his defense team, his family members and public figures.
Morales told technicians to enable a real-time streaming system while they were installing the cameras, according to the judge.
“He intended to open two streaming channels for online access, one official one for Ecuador and another for ‘friends of the United States’,” who wanted Assange’s extradition, the investigating judge said.
Assange seeks 20-year jail term for Spaniard who spied on him
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Assange seeks 20-year jail term for Spaniard who spied on him
- Julian Assange was released from a high-security British prison last June after a plea bargain with the US government
- A Spanish court concluded that former military officer David Morales allegedly spied on Assange
Bangladesh begins exhuming mass grave from 2024 uprising
- The United Nations says up to 1,400 people were killed in crackdowns as Hasina attempted to cling to power — deaths that formed part of her conviction last month for crimes against humanity
DHAKA: Bangladeshi police began exhuming on Sunday a mass grave believed to contain around 114 unidentified victims of a mass uprising that toppled autocratic former prime minister Sheikh Hasina last year.
The UN-supported effort is being advised by Argentine forensic anthropologist Luis Fondebrider, who has led recovery and identification missions at mass graves worldwide for decades.
The bodies were buried at the Rayerbazar Graveyard in Dhaka by the volunteer group Anjuman Mufidul Islam, which said it handled 80 unclaimed bodies in July and another 34 in August 2024 — all people reported to have been killed during weeks of deadly protests.
The United Nations says up to 1,400 people were killed in crackdowns as Hasina attempted to cling to power — deaths that formed part of her conviction last month for crimes against humanity.
Criminal Investigation Department (CID) chief Md Sibgat Ullah said investigators believed the mass grave held roughly 114 bodies, but the exact number would only be known once exhumations were complete.
“We can only confirm once we dig the graves and exhume the bodies,” Ullah told reporters.
- ‘Searched for him’ -
Among those hoping for answers is Mohammed Nabil, who is searching for the remains of his brother Sohel Rana, 28, who vanished in July 2024.
“We searched for him everywhere,” Nabil told AFP.
He said his family first suspected Rana’s death after seeing a Facebook video, then recognized his clothing — a blue T-shirt and black trousers — in a photograph taken by burial volunteers.
Exhumed bodies will be given post-mortem examinations and DNA testing. The process is expected to take several weeks to complete.
“It’s been more than a year, so it won’t be possible to extract DNA from the soft tissues,” senior police officer Abu Taleb told AFP. “Working with bones would be more time-consuming.”
Forensic experts from four Dhaka medical colleges are part of the team, with Fondebrider brought in to offer support as part of an agreement with the UN rights body the OHCHR.
“The process is complex and unique,” Fondebrider told reporters. “We will guarantee that international standards will be followed.”
Fondebrider previously headed the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, founded in 1984 to investigate the tens of thousands who disappeared during Argentina’s former military dictatorship.
Authorities say the exhumed bodies will be reburied in accordance with religious rites and their families’ wishes.
Hasina, convicted in absentia last month and sentenced to death, remains in self-imposed exile in India.
