News - Middle East: Spain's National High Court has summoned Mike Pompeo, former US president Donald Trump's secretary of state, to explain an alleged plot by Washington to assassinate WikiLeaks founder Australian-born Julian Assange.

Judge Santiago Pedraz summoned Pompeo to appear in the Madrid court to testify in the case, investigating a local security firm suspected of being used by the CIA to spy on Assange, media reported last week.

Sources close to the case reported that the Spanish security firm UC Global, while providing security for the Ecuadorian embassy in London, spied on Assange who had been holed up there for seven years.

Assange, who was pulled out of the embassy and put in jail in Britain in 2019, is now fighting extradition to the United States on computer hacking and espionage charges. 

In the meantime, a UK court has already issued a formal order to extradite Assange to the US where he will be facing decades in prison. The extradition order of Assange has been referred to the UK Home Secretary for a final decision.