Ecuador arrests Ola Bini, Swedish software developer said to be tied to Julian Assange, trying to ‘flee country’

Official said Bini was arrested at Quito’s airport as he was about to board a flight to Japan and was linked to an attempt to blackmail the president

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Quito Mariscal Sucre Airport. File photo: Shutterstock

Published: 11:25am, 12 Apr 2019Updated: 3:22pm, 12 Apr 2019

An alleged collaborator of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested on Thursday in Ecuador while trying to fly 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 on Thursday in London on a US extradition request after spending seven years in the Ecuadorean embassy there.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange waves from a window at Ecuador’s embassy in London with Ecuador’s foreign minister at the time Ricardo Patino on June 16, 2013. Photo: Reuters

Channel Teleamazonas identified him as Ola Bini, a software developer focused on privacy, security and cryptography, but did not name its source.

Earlier, the minister linked the collaborator with alleged attempts to destabilise the government of President Lenin Moreno and the arrest was part of an attempt to dismantle a blackmail ring.

He “has been detained simply for investigation purposes”, she said, adding that he had taken foreign trips with former Ecuadorean foreign minister Ricardo Patino, who gave political asylum to Assange in 2012.

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