British surveillance company rejects the request of the Foreign Minister Patino

Ricardo Patino

The British security company that the Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino accused of being the owner of a microphone installed at the Embassy of Ecuador in London, rejected the accusation. “We heard this morning a charge (…) that suggests that we have placed hidden microphones in the Embassy of Ecuador. That is completely untrue,” said the delegate of The Surveillance Group, Timothy Young.

“The Surveillance Group has never been involved in an activity of this nature. We’ve not been contacted by any member of the Ecuadorian government and our first report of this incident was through the press. This is a completely false statement,” said Young.

On Wednesday, June 3, the Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino confirmed that the government has “reasonable grounds for believing” that listening carried out by The Surveillance Group Limited, defining it as “one of the largest private companies in investigations and covert surveillance in the UK.”

Patino said the device was found in the office of the former ambassador Ana Alban on June 14, two days before his arrival in London to meet with his counterpart William Hague and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The Chancellor indicated that Ecuador requested the collaboration of the United Kingdom in an investigation to identify those responsible.