Ecuador's Interior Minister María Paula Romo announced that a person suspected of being a key WikiLeaks player close to the organization's founder Julian Assange had been arrested, and an unnamed Ecuadorian government official revealed to the AP that he was a Swedish programmer named Ola Bini. reports Tanjug.
Romo said the person, whom she did not name, was arrested on suspicion of plotting against the government in Quito, and the arrest was made at Ecuador's main airport when the person tried to board a flight to Tokyo.
"A person close to WikiLeaks, who had a residence in Ecuador, was arrested this afternoon while he was preparing to travel to Japan," she wrote on Twitter last night.
The AP states that this arrest happened just a few hours after Assange's arrest in London, as the Ecuadorian government revoked his asylum, which opened the way for his extradition to the United States.
Romo told CNN that the arrested man had lived in Ecuador for several years and often traveled to London.
"He was taken into custody simply for investigative reasons," the Ecuadorian minister said.
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