From Truthdig
Ola Bini will go to international courts, for the political and media persecution undertaken against him.
(Image by YouTube, Channel: HispanTV) Details DMCA
The case of Ola Bini, a Swedish data privacy activist and associate of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, has been shrouded in mystery since his arrest in Quito, Ecuador, on April 11. He was detained on the same day Assange was forcibly removed from the Ecuadorian Embassy in the United Kingdom, inevitably raising questions about whether Bini was being held because of his connection with Assange and whether the United States was involved in the case in some form.
Bini, who initially wasn't charged with a crime, was accused of being involved in a leak of documents that revealed that Ecuador's right-wing president, Lenin Moreno, had several offshore bank accounts. Bini was released after two months in an Ecuadorian prison under terrible conditions but is still fighting to maintain his freedom. He was eventually charged by Ecuadorian authorities with "alleged participation in the crime of assault on the integrity of computer systems and attempts to destabilize the country," though the evidence to support the accusations is dubious at best.
Speaking with Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer, Danny O'Brien discusses why Bini's case is so important to follow, despite a general lack of media interest in his arrest. O'Brien, director of strategy at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, went to Ecuador to visit Bini on behalf of the EFF in order to learn more about the case and advocate for the Swedish activist's rights.
"Journalists, lawyers, human rights lawyers, human rights defenders, sort of viewed broadly, are often the canaries in the coal mines in authoritarian or veering-authoritarian regimes," O'Brien tells Scheer in the latest installment of "Scheer Intelligence." "I think many governments recognize that if you can either ... silence, or just intimidate and chill, the key journalists or the prominent public defenders, then you have a huge sort of multiplier leverage effect on opposition groups, or groups fighting for justice in those countries.
"In the last few years," O'Brien continues, "I think that governments around the world have recognized that technologists also fall into this category, or particular kinds of technologists."