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"Ola Bini’s workplace was ‘burglarized’ and the ‘thieves’ took computer equipment with which the CAD works,” Bini's Attorney said.
The offices of the non-governmental organization Center for Digital Autonomy (CAD) in Ecuador, founded by Swedish programmer and digital privacy activist Ola Bini, were sacked Wednesday night, according to his attorney, Carlos Soria.
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“Ola Bini’s workplace was ‘burglarized’ Wednesday and the ‘thieves’ took computer equipment with which the CAD works,” Soria tweeted, adding that this is just a tactic to “intimidate.”
According to CAD’s website, they describe their organization as “a group of people passionate about digital privacy, security and anonymity. We build free and open software for everyone, to protect privacy, security and anonymity.”
As Bini’s attorney pointed out, the burglary happened a day before the hearing of Marco A., a professional associate of Bini, who according to Soria, was involved in the Swede’s case as a means to not allow a permanent closure to this case.
"The prosecutor's office involves another person, whose relationship with Ola Bini is merely professional for 30 more days without telling us what, how, when or where computer systems were violated," the attorney tweeted on July 10.
En caso Ola Bini hoy Fiscalía superó las expectativas en violar la ley. Ahora es delito: conocer a Ola Bini, ser su amigo, ser su proveedor o tener una relación de trabajo. Es decir, derecho penal del enemigo.
— Jose Charry Dávalos (@JoseCharryD) August 1, 2019
Bini has been accused, without charges, by the Ecuadorean General Attorney’s office for the alleged crime of attacks against information systems (hacking). On June 20, he was released from jail after Ecuador's Provincial Court of Pichincha granted him the habeas corpus request.
After 71 days of detention, the defense team informed they were never informed of said charges.
The open source developer was arrested on April 11, just a few hours after WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was removed from the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He was initially accused of participating in the "assault on the integrity" of computer systems and later, on April 13, he was placed in 90-day preventative custody, without formal charges.
Bini has reiterated many times that he is “not a hacker” but a “programmer.”
The Unted Nations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights denounced the Swede’s detainment as arbitrary, saying the Ecuadorean government has nothing to connect him to Assange or to any crime.
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