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Despite an Ecuadorian court’s unanimous acquittal of security expert Ola Bini in January this year due to complete lack of evidence, Ecuador’s attorney general’s office has moved to appeal the decision, perpetuating several years of unjust attacks on Bini’s rights.
In the context of the Internet Governance Forum 2023 (IGF) held in Japan, the Observation Mission on the Bini case, which includes EFF and various digital and human rights groups, analyzed how advocates can utilize key elements of the judgment that found Bini not guilty. The Mission released a new statement pointing out these elements. The statement also urges Ecuadorian authorities to clarify Bini’s procedural status as the attorney general’s office has been posing difficulties for Bini’s compliance with the precautionary measures still pending against him, particularly the requirement of periodic appearances to the AG’s office.
The full statement in Spanish is available here.
Below we’ve summarized these key elements, which are critical for the protection of digital rights.
Irrelevant Evidence. The court characterized all evidence presented by the attorney general’s office as irrelevant: “None of these elements led to a procedural truth for the purpose of proving any crime.” With this decision, the court refused to convict Bini based on stereotyped views of security experts. It has refused to apply criminal law based on a person’s identity, connections, or activity, instead of actual conduct, or to apply criminal law based on a “political and arbitrary interpretation of what constitutes the security of the State and who could threaten it.” Politically motivated prosecutions like Bini’s receive extensive media coverage, but what is often presented as “suspicious” is neither te
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