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Assange aide arrested trying to leave Ecuador: official
QUITO, April 12, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A collaborator of WikiLeaks founder
Julian Assange was arrested Thursday in Ecuador while trying to flee to
Japan, the South American country’s interior minister said.
Maria Paula Romo did not identify the person but told Sonorama radio he was
very close to Assange, who was arrested Thursday in London on a US
extradition request after spending seven years in the Ecuadoran embassy
there.
Channel Teleamazonas identified him as Ola Bini, a software developer
focused on privacy, security and cryptography, but did not name its source.
Earlier Thursday, the minister had linked the collaborator with alleged
attempts to destabilize the government of President Lenin Moreno.
He “has been detained simply for investigation purposes,” she said, adding
he had taken foreign trips with former Ecuadoran foreign minister Ricardo
Patino, who gave political asylum to Assange in 2012.
“We have sufficient evidence that he was collaborating in attempts to
destabilize the government,” she said.
Romo’s announcement followed the arrest of Assange earlier Thursday.
British police moved in after Ecuador pulled its asylum for Assange and
cancelled his citizenship, granted in 2012.
He had been living in the embassy, fearing arrest, but the Ecuadoran
government says that Assange “repeatedly violated” the conditions of his
protection.
The US Justice Department said Assange was being charged with a computer
hacking conspiracy relating to his work with former US intelligence analyst
Chelsea Manning in March 2010.
BSS/AFP/GMR/0853 hrs