MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Ecuador asks UK to help investigate spying at its embassy in London

Foreign minister Patiño shows the bug found in Ambassador Ana Alban in her office

Ecuador has asked the UK to help an investigation over alleged spying at its embassy in London where Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is living. Ecuador named a British company it claimed planted a listening device in their ambassador's office but this was denied.

Mr Assange has been staying at the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden. He is wanted there for questioning over allegations by two women of sexual offences - which he denies.

Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño told a news conference in Quito the bug was found last month when Ecuadorean technicians reviewed the embassy's wiring. The purpose of the bug, which was hidden inside an electrical socket, was to listen to the conversations of Ambassador Ana Alban in her office, Mr Patiño said.

Assange lives and works in a different room in the embassy.

“We have reason to believe that the bugging was carried out by The Surveillance Group Limited, one of the largest private investigation and covert surveillance companies in the United Kingdom”. Patiño said.

On its website, the company says it combines “the practices, skills and experience of special forces, police and commercial surveillance to create an entirely new form of surveillance”.

It says its clients include British law enforcement agencies, other government bodies and financial institutions, and that it has teams in Europe and Canada.

Services on offer include digital forensics, corporate investigations, professional witness surveillance and intelligence reports, according to the company website.

The system worked with a Sim card and could be activated by a call from any mobile or fixed-line phone, he added.

The Surveillance Group, which is based in Worcester, said Mr Patiño's allegation was “wholly untrue”.

Chief executive Timothy Young said: “We have this morning heard an accusation the source of which is apparently Ricardo Patiño, the Ecuadorean foreign minister suggesting that we have bugged the Ecuadorean embassy.

”This is completely untrue. The Surveillance Group does not and have never been engaged in any activities of this nature.

“We have not been contacted by any member of the Ecuadorean government and our first notification about this incident was via the press this morning.”

The UK and Ecuador have failed to reach agreement on how to deal with Julian Assange, who faces arrest if he leaves the Ecuadorean embassy.

Patiño wants the UK to guarantee Assange safe passage to Ecuador, but the UK maintains it has a legal obligation to extradite him to Sweden.

Assange's organisation Wikileaks says it is advising US intelligence ‘leaker’ Edward Snowden, who is reportedly seeking asylum in more than 20 countries to avoid extradition to the US.

Mr Snowden, who is currently thought to be in Moscow airport, is wanted on charges of leaking secrets he gathered while working as a contractor for the National Security Agency - America's electronic spying agency.