Files Disappear From the Phone of the Former Spanish Soldier Who Spied on Julian Assange for the CIA
One of the main pieces of evidence against David Morales, the former Spanish soldier whose company spied on Julian Assange and his lawyers during his prolonged stay at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, has disappeared. The Spanish police did not deliver to Judge Santiago Pedraz the complete file of the Samsung S7 phone used by Morales to communicate with the alleged CIA agents to whom he provided the WikiLeaks founders’ defense strategy, according to documents of the judicial investigation to which EL PAÍS has had access. After repeated judicial requests, officers responded that “they do not know” the location of the complete file. Judge Pedraz has ordered its immediate recovery.
Prosecutor Carlos Bautista has complained about the disappearance of this file, which he describes as “essential” to the case. He has demanded it be found “because it contains more data than that made available to the parties.” The Public Prosecutor’s Office said: “It is extremely striking that the police unit has delivered the UFDR (Universal Forensic Data Report) and UFDX (Universal Forensic Data Exchange) files from the other devices and has not done so precisely from this one.” Previously, the Prosecutor’s Office also complained about the “certain paralysis” caused by “the exasperating slowness of the police force involved in the analysis of all the elements seized.”
Judge Pedraz has summoned the officers of the Cybercrime Unit to appear in court and make a copy — in his presence — of both files on the Samsung S7 in an attempt to recover the omitted information and find out who is responsible for its disappearance. Spain’s National Police declined to respond to this newspaper’s questions. . .
During the search of Morales’ home and offices in the Spanish city of Jerez de la Frontera, in September 2019, the investigators’ primary objective was precisely to seize the Samsung S7 G930F phone that protected witnesses (company workers) had configured for Morales so that he could allegedly communicate with the CIA. This detail was communicated to the officers who detained Morales before the arrest took place. But the police handed over the complete files of all the phones, computers and electronic devices seized from Morales’ home and offices, except for the files on the Samsung phone. This police action has meant that the Userdata folder — which stored Morales’s conversations on WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Proton Mail and Skype — has been removed from the case.
Morales — the owner of UC Global SL, a company that was in charge of security at the Ecuadorian embassy in London — was arrested two months after an EL PAÍS investigation released the audios and videos that its workers recorded of the Australian activist inside the embassy. This material was presented as evidence in a criminal complaint filed by Assange’s defense team, and Spain’s High Court, the Audiencia Nacional, opened an investigation into the violation of attorney-client privilege, misappropriation of funds and money laundering. (Read more from “Files Disappear From the Phone of the Former Spanish Soldier Who Spied on Julian Assange for the CIA” HERE)
