Letter To Swedish PM From Int'l Figures On Behalf of Ola Bini

A number of celebrities, activists, and acadmics recently signed an open letter calling on the Swedish Prime Minister to intervene on behalf of  developer Ola Bini as he is currently in the custody of the Ecuadorean authorities.

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In the open letter that was posted by FreeOlaBini.org, the website said "as technologists, free and open source developers, and individuals and organizations working to protect the security of the Internet, we wish to protest in the strongest terms the continuing illegal detention in Ecuador of Ola Bini, a cyber-security expert, privacy consultant, free software contributor and advocate of digital rights. We see his ongoing, preventive detention as arbitrary and as an attack against us all."

"Ola was detained at Quito airport on April 11 and prevented from boarding a plane to Japan. His basic rights were denied: he was not informed of the accusations against him, nor was he provided translation into his native language, Swedish, and he was kept in illegal custody without the ability to communicate with the Swedish consul, in flagrant disregard of Ecuador's constitution," they stated.

The website called on the "Ecuadorian authorities to immediately release Ola Bini and unconditionally drop all charges against him."

Among the signatories calling for the release of Ola Bini were Pamela Anderson, Noam Chomsky, Brian Eno, Yanis Varoufakis, Arundhati Roy, and Dave Eggers. 

Ecuador alleges Bini conspired with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to endanger Ecuador's national security. 

Assange recently had his asylum cancelled by Ecuador after they accused him of spying and being ungrateful to his hosts.