Belgium grants asylum to Rafael Correa; Ecuadorian justice requests his extradition

First modification: 04/22/2022 – 19:50

Between asylum protection and extradition. The former president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, is at a new crossroads after his country formally requested his expulsion from Belgium to appear before the Ecuadorian Justice.

The bad news for the former president came shortly after his lawyer, Christophe Marchand, declared himself “happy” by confirming that Brussels had granted Correa refugee status in that territory.

Marchand explained that the request for the protection measure had been made since 2018, the year in which Ecuador began to open investigative processes against him, including one that linked the former president to the alleged kidnapping of an opponent in 2012, the so-called “case Shelf”.

Correa’s attorney explained that in order to grant him asylum, the Belgian government asked him to prove the existence of political persecution against him in his country of origin, so the concession would support the former president’s allegations.

To do this, Correa provided “documentation on the criminal cases against him with political motivations” and “aimed at preventing his political career,” the lawyer said.

“‘Ignorance is like a night without stars’. Political asylum is the recognition that everything has been political persecution,” Correa wrote on his Twitter account, after learning of the decision.

Ecuador formulates a new extradition request against Correa

The granting of asylum by Brussels was clouded by Quito. The president of the National Court of Justice of the South American country, Iván Saquicela, announced that he signed a formal request for the delivery of Correa to the authorities.

“I have signed the ruling initiating the extradition process as appropriate for the former president citizen,” Saquicela said in a surprising statement broadcast on local television this Friday, April 22.

The official explained that the measure seeks compliance with the final judgment of 2020 with which Correa was sentenced to eight years in prison, accused of aggravated bribery, that is, bribery in order to obtain a benefit. With that ruling, the former ruler also lost his political rights for 25 years.

The case refers to the delivery of millions of dollars that, according to the Justice, were made by businessmen to the then ruling Alianza País party, in exchange for granting them large infrastructure works, between 2012 and 2016.

In interviews with France 24 between 2018 and 2020, the former president confirmed his position that the accusations against him correspond to “a montage.” “The vast majority know that this is a political persecution,” emphasized the former head of state.

The sentence issued two years ago blocked the former president from participating in the 2021 presidential elections for which he had applied.

Now, and according to what was stated by the president of the National Court of Justice, it is up to the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry to process with the Government of Belgium the process to return Correa to his country, based on the extradition agreement with the European nation that dates from 1887 and more recent international treaties.

With AP and EFE