A Spanish security firm accused of spying on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during his stay in the Ecuadorian embassy tried to investigate whether the whistleblower might have fathered a child in the diplomatic mission in London, El Pais newspaper reported on Wednesday.
According to El Pais, David Morales, the head of Spain’s Undercover Global SL, which was in charge of ensuring the embassy’s security, suspected that Assange was the father of a baby who had been frequently brought into the embassy. The baby was brought to the embassy by Stephen Hoo, an actor and Assange’s friend, who claimed that it was his own child. The visits usually came just minutes after Stella Morris, the fiance and a lawyer of Assange, entered the embassy.
Morales reportedly even instructed his employees to steal the baby’s diaper for a DNA test. Later, a then-employee of the firm alerted Morris about the plans, and the child’s visits stopped.
"They wanted to prove that it was his child in a bid to harm him. There were talks with three Madrid labs to see how the parental connection could be proved. One of them said that DNA cannot be extracted from feces. There was an attempt to take the baby’s pacifier," the firm's former employee told the newspaper.
Morales is now under investigation by Spain’s High Court for spying on Assange and his close circle for the US and Ecuadorian intelligence services.
After being driven out of the Ecuadorian embassy by the UK police in April 2019, Assange was put in London’s high-security Belmarsh prison. He is now awaiting a decision on whether he will be extradited to the US. If extradited to the US, the whistleblower will face up to 175 years in prison.
