QUITO, June 21, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – An Ecuador court ordered the release
Thursday of a Swedish national with ties to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
and who was accused of computer hacking, as his detention was deemed
“arbitrary.”
Ola Bini had been arrested while trying to travel to Japan April 11, the
same day Ecuador rescinded Assange’s seven-year claim to asylum in their
London embassy.
“There was effectively a violation to (Bini’s) right to freedom,” and his
detention was “illegitimate and arbitrary,” judge Patricio Vaca said in his
ruling, ordering his immediate release.
The court will require Bini to periodically appear before authorities and
banned him from leaving the country as investigations continue on his alleged
hacking attacks.
“I am out of prison tomorrow, but I am not free as long this illegitimate
investigation is going on,” Bini said, and his lawyers insisted the entire
case against him was baseless.
Ecuador has linked Bini to WikiLeaks’s Assange — a damaging charge, as
Quito has declared that any person close to the Australian was therefore
involved in a plot to destabilize President Lenin Moreno.
Assange’s case, which has upset defenders of press freedoms and human
rights, revolves around WikiLeaks publishing thousands of classified military
and diplomatic documents in 2010.
He is currently spending a year in prison in Britain for violating bail
when he fled to the Ecuadoran embassy in 2012 to avoid sexual assault
accusations in Sweden.
And Assange could face 175 years in prison under US charges of violating
the Espionage Act. An extradition hearing is set for February.