Ecuador: 'We bring the truth' - Trial of Assange-linked computer scientist Ola Bini begins in Quito
Mandatory credit: Ola Bini lawyers
Swedish computer scientist Ola Bini and his lawyer Carlos Soria attended court in Quito on Wednesday, for the first day of the trial where Bini has been charged with an alleged crime of non-consensual access in government telematic systems.
The collaborator and friend of WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange faces charges of 'non-consensual access to a computer system.' Bini was arrested on April 11 2019 as he was set to travel to Japan, the same day Assange was expelled from the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
Bini was released on bail in 2019, but banned from leaving the country. Bini has been accused of conspiring to blackmail Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno due to the cancellation of Julian Assange's asylum status and the latter's subsequent arrest. Ecuadorian Interior Minister Maria Paula Romo has argued that Bini travelled at least a dozen times to meet with Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
SOUNDBITES
SOT, Carlos Soria, Ola Bini's lawyer (Spanish): "Well, after almost three years of more than 100 violations of Ola's rights, with the support of more than 100 national and international organisations including the United Nations, the North American Human Rights System, Amnesty International and WFF among others, we finally have the opportunity to appear before a court after all the unnecessary delays that occurred, and seek justice, which is the only thing we have wanted from the beginning. We have never sought anything other than justice. This case should never have reached this stage, we regret the actions of the previous judges, and we trust that within what we can present today before the Court, and on the basis of the non-existence of any kind of evidence by the prosecution and the private prosecution, the Court in this case, should and must ratify the innocence of a Swedish citizen who has done nothing but work in the country and face this type of violations for almost three years."
SOT, Carlos Soria, Ola Bini's lawyer (Spanish): "The procedural truth, not the famous press conferences where people were arrested or where telephone calls were invented with the supposed commission of a crime that never existed. We bring the truth, the truth of things and on the basis of that, more than 100 witnesses, more than 100 documents of documentary evidence and logically the expert opinions that the only thing they do is to ratify that there is no materiality of any kind, that there is no crime and therefore there cannot be any kind of responsible."
SOT, Carlos Soria, Ola Bini's lawyer (Spanish): "We have never denied it [that Ola Bini had a friendship with Julian Assange], if that is a crime, then the prosecution is crazy. If it is that here they intend to put a person in jail because he is a friend of someone, then the prosecution has lost its way."
SOT, Carlos Soria, Ola Bini's lawyer (Spanish): "The truth, dear Enrique, is that María Paula Romo never filed the complaint she said she was going to file. She never delivered the evidence that in the following hours she was going to present. And then that fell, each of the things they said politically fell already within the judicial file. And for the same reason, not having any type of evidence, no evidence of any type of crime, the only thing that has to happen in these days is that the court listens to the procedural truth and ratifies the innocence of Ola Bini." NO CUTAWAYS AT SOURCE
SOT, Carlos Soria, Ola Bini's lawyer (Spanish): "Yes, of course, and they were never able to provide any kind of proof or evidence, that supposedly that happened, and what's more, they invented the link to another person and then reformulated charges because they found nothing. What more persecution do we expect at this moment that has been demonstrated by the former government minister and by the former president of the Republic? We have to go up to the hearing right now, then we can talk about anything later." NO CUTAWAYS AT SOURCE
SOT, Journalist (Spanish): "So according to you, Ola Bini was persecuted by the Moreno government?"
SOT, Carlos Soria, Ola Bini's lawyer (Spanish): "Completely and continues to be until he is not declared innocent, as it has to happen. We hope that is what justice does, that it does its job and that the hands and tentacles of politics stop getting into the judicial system in this and all cases. Thank you."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAusZ6xHzFc