Assange seeks 20-Year sentence for security company chief in Spain

Saturday 18 October 2025 - 14:00

By: Sahili Aya

Assange seeks 20-Year sentence for security company chief in Spain

Madrid, October 18, 2025 — Lawyers for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange have asked a Spanish court to sentence David Morales Guillen, head of the security company Undercover Global, to 20 years in prison. Morales is accused of spying on Assange on behalf of the United States while the Australian was taking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

The legal filing requests a prison term for disclosure of secrets, corruption, money laundering, and illegal possession of weapons. Assange had been released from a UK prison in June 2024 after reaching an agreement with US authorities over his extradition. He had initially sought asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over allegations later dropped.

Between 2015 and 2018, Undercover Global, based in Spain and led by former military officer David Morales, managed embassy security. According to Assange’s defense, Morales, during a trip to Las Vegas in 2016, allegedly shared sensitive information with US authorities.

Spanish investigations concluded that Morales spied on Assange and transmitted illegally obtained information about him and other figures, including several Latin American presidents. In 2017, Morales reportedly installed new security cameras capable of recording confidential conversations inside the embassy between Assange, his lawyers, and visiting dignitaries.

Targets included Assange’s defense coordinator Baltasar Garzón, former presidents Evo Morales, Rafael Correa, José Mujica, and former female presidents Cristina Kirchner (Argentina) and Dilma Rousseff (Brazil). Morales also allegedly set up a streaming system to monitor embassy activities in real time, with channels for Ecuador and “friends of the United States,” who sought Assange’s extradition.

Since 2010, Assange and WikiLeaks have published hundreds of thousands of classified US military and diplomatic documents, including accounts of extrajudicial executions and intelligence operations targeting US allies.