On January 31, the Swedish computer security expert and free software developer, Ola Bini, was found not guilty by a unanimous verdict from a three-judge tribunal in Ecuador. This marked the culmination of an unfounded criminal prosecution that has persisted for over four years. The Prosecutor’s Office appealed the acquittal, however, dragging out this problematic criminal case and suspending the court’s decision to lift the precautionary measures pending against Bini. As a result, Bini cannot leave Ecuador or use his bank accounts.
As we previously wrote, the January ruling set a crucial precedent. It was the first time an Ecuadorian court analyzed the issue of unauthorized access to a computer system, an act classified as an offense under Article 234 of Ecuador’s criminal code. Most importantly, the court resisted setting an expansive interpretation of what constitutes unauthorized access of computer systems, a move that could have seriously endangered the beneficial work of security researchers and the vital role they play for our privacy and security across information systems.
The acquittal sentence makes three important facts clear. First, the evidence the prosecution presented was essentially unrelated to the charge of unauthorized access and did not prove the alleged criminal facts. Second, the only piece of evidence that was possibly related, the image of a telnet session showing a connection to a National Telecommunications Corporation (CNT) router, was not proof of criminal activity. And third, the prosecution didn’t present any evidence to prove the required
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