EFF reports that Ecuadorean authorities held free software developer and security expert Ola Bini in Quito and ordered his immediate deportation, barring him from returning to Ecuador for 10 years.

According to information released by his lawyer, Bini was intercepted by a car with four people who identified themselves as immigration agents and taken to an immigration office without further information or a formal order from a competent authority. Officials told him his visa had been revoked but showed no supporting document. The deportation is based on a secret report allegedly asserting that Bini committed acts against the security of Ecuador; the defense could not access its contents. A habeas corpus filed by his defense did not prevent the order. Human rights organizations were denied entry to the deportation hearing, which was suspended and later reinstated with the immediate deportation. Bini was relocated to Quito’s airport and must remain there until flying back to Sweden.

EFF notes that the underlying criminal case has expired: the statute of limitations ran out, and the court had already formally lifted all precautionary measures. Bini had been unanimously acquitted by the lower court in 2023; that verdict was overturned on the prosecution’s appeal, and the majority of the appeals court convicted him for attempted unauthorized access of a telecommunications system — a conviction EFF says lacked actual evidence, in a case it describes as surrounded by political interests.

EFF, which has reported on the case since Bini’s 2019 arrest — which it calls arbitrary — and is part of the Observation Mission on the case, describes the deportation as a new chapter in his persecution by Ecuadorean authorities and urges them to explain the accusations against him. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/10/ola-bini-ordered-leave-ecuador-under-obscure-accusations