Government orders deportation of Swedish programmer and WikiLeaks contributor Ola Bini

Ecuadorian immigration authorities ordered the deportation of Swedish programmer and digital-rights activist Ola Bini early Friday, barring him from returning to the country for 10 years after the government revoked his visa on national-security grounds.

Ola Bini

Bini became internationally known in 2019 because of his association with WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange.

Bini, who has lived in Ecuador since 2013, was intercepted by immigration officers in northern Quito around midday Thursday and taken to immigration offices after authorities told him his visa had been revoked, according to court records reviewed by Ecuadorian news website Primicias.

His attorneys filed a habeas corpus petition Thursday challenging his detention. Ecuador’s Automated Judicial Processing System, known as SATJE, confirmed the filing, according to Primicias. Bini and his lawyer, Carlos Soria, said authorities ordered his deportation before a judge ruled on the petition.

“Now I’m at the airport surrounded by cops,” Bini wrote on X at 1:42 a.m. Friday. “A secret report says I’m a threat to Ecuador, so I will be deported immediately.”

Bini remained at Quito’s Mariscal Sucre International Airport on Friday while arrangements were made for his travel to Sweden, Soria told El Comercio. The attorney said Bini did not have a passport and his defense was working with the Swedish Embassy in Bogotá to obtain an emergency travel document.

The deportation order prohibits Bini from returning to Ecuador for 10 years, according to Soria. The programmer said he was not given access to the classified report used to support the government’s decision.

Ecuador’s government had not publicly detailed the conduct underlying the national-security determination as of Friday. Under Ecuador’s immigration regulations, authorities may revoke a foreign national’s visa when state agencies determine, through a substantiated report, that the person committed acts threatening state security.

An amicus curiae filing in the case says authorities justified the revocation of Bini’s visa and his deportation on grounds that he posed a “threat and risk to public security and the structure of the state,” based on documents classified as secret or reserved, Primicias reported.

Soria said the Interior Ministry requested the visa revocation over alleged acts against Ecuador’s state security.
Ecuadorian authorities arrested him in April 2019, hours after the government of then-President Lenín Moreno ended Assange’s asylum at Ecuador’s embassy in London.