Three Years After BS Arrest For Hacking, Swedish Digital Rights Activist Freed By Ecuadorian Court
from the Assange-collateral-damage dept
In April 2019, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was booted from the Ecuadorian embassy in London and arrested by UK authorities on behalf of the US to face criminal charges related to CIA leaks provided by Chelsea Manning.
He was not the only activist with an Ecuadorian nexus to be arrested that day. Ola Bini, a Swedish open source developer and digital rights activist, was arrested at the Quito Airport by Ecuadorian police for allegedly hacking CNT, a local telecommunications company. The arrest appeared to be collateral damage from the Assange expulsion — the politically motivated targeting of a Wikileaks-adjacent activist by a government official who claimed (despite knowing otherwise) that Bini was a dangerous hacker.
His arrest occurred shortly after Maria Paula Romo, then Ecuador’s Interior Minister, held a press conference to claim (without evidence) that a group of Russians and Wikileaks-connected hackers were in the country, planning a cyber-attack in retaliation for the government’s eviction of Assange; a recent investigation by La Posta revealed that the former Minister knew that Ola Bini was not the “Russian hacker” the government was looking for when Bini was detained in Quito’s airport. (Romo was dismissed as minister in 2020 for ordering the use of tear gas against anti-government protestors).
Bini was held for 70 days without being criminally charged. After a court forced prosecutors to get on with the prosecuting, Bini was released to his family while the government built its case. And what a case it was. The only evidence prosecutors had was a screenshot of CNT’s telnet login screen, one that appeared to have been taken by Bini as he informed a local system administrator of this apparent security hole.
Bini’s defense team has documented dozens of instances of prosecutorial misconduct. At one point, the judge overseeing the case was removed after sustained complaints about due process violations. Finally, nearly four years after being arrested, Bini is free, handed a verdict of innocence by the court.
Swedish software developer and digital rights activist Ola Bini was acquitted of charges of hacking a computer on Tuesday, January 31 by a court in Quito. The activist was acquitted unanimously by a tribunal of three judges after delivering a nearly 4.5-hour-long statement. Bini has faced persecution from the Ecuadorian state since 2019, and the legal proceedings against him have been marred by irregularities.
Speaking after the verdict to Peoples Dispatch, Carlos Soria, a member of the legal team for Bini, termed the tribunal’s unanimous verdict “unexpected” and a “very nice surprise,” considering all the irregularities, over 100 violations of due process, and adverse judgments over the nearly four years since Bini was first arrested.
Prosecutors have already stated they plan to appeal this ruling, which means Bini isn’t completely free yet. But given the extensive prosecutorial misconduct documented in this case, it’s safe to say the court didn’t spend more than four hours congratulating the government on putting up a good fight. Of course, the government has all the time and money it needs to continue pursuing a vindictive prosecution even the official initiating it knew targeted the wrong person.
Filed Under: ecuador, hacking, julian assange, maria paula romo, ola bini, retaliation
Companies: cnt
Comments on “Three Years After BS Arrest For Hacking, Swedish Digital Rights Activist Freed By Ecuadorian Court”
Only hackers use telnet. /s
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Telnet? What sort of n00b hackers use that?
Actual, professional hackers use TELEPHONES. /s
(Jokes aside, hackers don’t break out the heavy stuff because they use the power of psychology.)
Huh, VMS.
The security hole: it’s fucking Telnet.
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Nothing wrong with telnet as a client (it obviously has not business being anywhere as a service nowadays). It’s been superseded by better software, but it still has uses.
I’m intrigued by the screenshot as it’s too blurred to see which port they were connecting on. If it is indeed connecting direct to a telnet server, whoever admins that system is about 20 years behind on basic security concepts and needs to retire. A damn shame that merely telling them to (to use an analogy) stop parking their car on the street with the door open and the keys in the ignition is a jailable offence, I hope the next “hacker” gives them a real lesson in security.
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Unfortunately, in the US there have been many prosecutions / threats of prosecution of computer security researchers due to vindictive interpretation of the CFAA (Computer Fraud and Abuse Act). Last year the DOJ said they would quit doing this. But since no one can believe anything the DOJ says, the chilling effect is still there.
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Yep. If you stop people from saying “hey, you’re vulnerable to attack”, then the only people who will tell you are the ones with a ransom attached…
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They could rename this site to techidiots.com /irl !=/s
Telcom equipment and many other types of equipment only have/had telnet interfaces available with no GUI or control software available.
https://www.shodan.io/search?query=telnet
Its only gotten easier to be a peeping tron. When on vacation in another country, try it.