An individual alleged to have links to Julian Assange has been arrested while trying to leave Ecuador, officials in the country said.
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April 12 2019 6:40 AM
An individual alleged to have links to Julian Assange has been arrested while trying to leave Ecuador, officials in the country said.
The man, said to be Swedish software developer Ola Bini, was held at Quito airport as he prepared to board a flight bound for Japan on Thursday.
Ecuador’s interior minister Maria Paula Romo said a person had been arrested for allegedly conspiring against the country’s government.
The development emerged as Assange spent his first night in custody after being convicted of breaching bail following a dramatic arrest at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he had been holed up for seven years.
He is facing extradition to the US on charges of conspiring to break into a classified government computer which, on conviction, could attract a maximum jail sentence of five years, according to the US Department of Justice.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has called on the British Government to oppose any attempt to extradite him.
Ms Romo told CNN’s Spanish service: “We have information on how WikiLeaks would have intervened in domestic politics.
“Today a collaborator close to Julian Assange was arrested for investigative purposes. He has been living in Ecuador and was preparing to travel to Japan.”
British software developer Martin Fowler said he was “very concerned to hear that my friend and colleague @olabini has been arrested in Ecuador”.
WikiLeaks accused Ecuador of acting illegally in terminating Assange’s political asylum “in violation of international law” on Thursday.
The Ecuadorian government had historically been sympathetic to Assange’s cause, but a regime change two years ago heralded a less supportive approach.
The country’s ambassador to the UK, Jaime Marchan, said that in the time Assange had remained in the embassy he had been disrespectful, “continually a problem” and interfered in elections, politics and the internal affairs of other countries.
Mr Marchan added: “He has said that we were spying on him, he has said we were lying, we were agents of the United States.”
However, WikiLeaks editor Kristinn Hrafnsson said Assange had been thrown “overboard” by Ecuador, adding: “I thought it was horrible to treat an individual like that.
