 The trial against Ola Bini, Swedish software developer and digital rights activist, is set to resume on May 16th. Before what are expected to be the final days of his trial, a coalition of civil society organizations who have been observing the case have released a report stating how Ola Bini has been subjected to politically motivated persecution. The report outlines the deep irregularities and misconduct in the legal process and case against Ola Bini. I'm Ola Bini, I'm a Swedish developer. I've lived in Ecuador since 2013, and I consider Ecuador my home. I've been a developer for close to 30 years. The developer means that I write software programs. For the last 10 years or so, I have been focused primarily on developing software related to security and privacy. The kind of programs that I develop are things that I give away for free for everyone. So I want to protect the privacy and the security of everyone on the planet, not just specific people that pay me. Bini, one of the world's leading digital security experts, was arrested on April 11th, 2019, hours after his friend and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was detained from the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Bini's defense claims that the digital rights activist is being targeted by Ecuadorian authorities for his connection to Assange. Bini had visited Assange while he was confined in the embassy in London. At the time of his arrest, Bini was imprisoned without any charges being filed against him, and the then president of Ecuador, Lenin Moreno, even claimed that the activists might have tried to interfere in the US election. After 70 days in jail, Bini was released, but the legal process against him continues. Bini is prohibited from leaving Ecuador and his bank accounts have been frozen. His defense is trying to have the case dismissed. Since April 2019, I've been under investigation and I'm charged in a criminal procedure here in Ecuador and I'm still not free from that procedure. When I was first arrested, I was arrested on the charges of impacting the integrity of computer systems, but they never actually said which computer systems I had been attacking in any way. They never actually asked me any questions, they never interviewed me. Over the whole time when I was in prison, up until the end of the interest from this gallery, there's never been an official interview of me where they've asked any questions. The government has also made connections to Julian Assange and of course when I was taken at the airport, it was the same day as Julian Assange was actually thrown out of the Ecuadorian embassy and given to the British police. I'm only a friend of Julian Assange. I've never worked with him on anything or if we can mix on anything, but they claim that I have wanted to get into any world to disable us ever. However, none of these accusations have ever been presented with any evidence. The trial against Bini only began in January this year after years of delays. The three years since his arrest have been marked by a recusing of charges, documented harassment and surveillance of Bini and constant shifting of charges from the prosecution leading to serious allegations of political interference in the case. Between the trial hearing in January and its resumption in May, Ecuador's prosecutor's office has revived an investigation against Fabian Hurtado. Hurtado is an expert witness in Bini's case who has prepared a report on the prosecution's charges against him. He has been accused of obstruction of justice and his home was recently targeted in a police search operation. Amnesty International says that Hurtado who worked for Bini's defense had his electronic equipment violently confiscated and that the police action was an intimidating act that undermines the digital rights activists' defense. Human rights organizations claim that the Swedish programmer is the target of a campaign of judicial harassment. The report further noted that the accusations against Bini show little technical knowledge. They are based on arbitrary application of broad criminal laws against computer security investigators who carry out legitimate activities and are protected by international human rights standards. You can see this in the work that there's been an harassment of lots of different people doing legitimate security investigation and work and actually facing much of this president. For me privacy is one of those rights that by itself privacy might not seem like it's super important but at the end of the day privacy is something that we we need in order to have all the other things that society depends on. Say for example elections. Democracy as a concept is based on the idea that people are free to choose who they want to govern them. Without free elections then the whole idea of democracy kind of goes out the window. But the problem is if you don't have privacy if you know that you are going to be surveilled you don't really have freedom because you know that your choices will be observed and if the government are the ones that are surveilling you well you're probably not going to be doing the same kind of choices as you would make if the government was not surveilling you. So privacy for me is one of those core principles that is necessary for democracy to function.