Ecuador Says Its London Embassy Was Bugged
Ecuador's foreign minister says a microphone has been found hidden inside the country's embassy in London, where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been living for the past year. The listening device was found last month, says Foreign Minister Ricardo Patio, when he traveled to the embassy to meet with Assange.
The covert microphone was reportedly discovered in the office of the ambassador, Ana Alban.
"We regret to inform you that in our embassy in London we have found a hidden microphone," Patio said Tuesday at a news conference in Quito, according to Reuters.
Here's more of Patio's statement, translated by Reuters:
"I didn't denounce this at the time because we didn't want the theme of our visit to London to be confused with this matter.
"Furthermore, we first wanted to ascertain with precision what could be the origin of this interception device in the office of our ambassador.
"We are sorry to say so, but this is another instance of a loss of ethics at the international level in relations between governments."