The National Court of Justice (CNJ) of Ecuador sent this Friday to the Foreign Ministry the file with the extradition request of former President Rafael Correasentenced in 2020 to eight years in prison for bribery and who is in Belgium, where he obtained, according to his defense, political asylum.
This was indicated by sources from the CNJ, who confirmed that the document was dated this Friday, May 27.
(Also read: Rafael Correa’s move to get rid of Ecuadorian justice)
The process of requesting the extradition of the former president began on April 21, as announced a day later by the then president of the Court, Iván Saquicela.
Ten judges of the high court ratified the decision, which is one more step towards the former president serving 8 years in prison and 25 years of political disqualification (he could not run for the 2021 elections) to which he was sentenced in a final sentence issued by the Ecuadorian Justice in September 2020.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ecuador must now process the judicial claim before the Belgian Government, in accordance with the extradition agreement ratified with that country in 1887, in addition to subsequent legislation and international treaties.
(You can read: Rafael Correa: a political life full of scandals)
It will immediately send the documents through the diplomatic channels for the corresponding process.
The Foreign Ministry confirmed this Friday, in a statement, the receipt of the file sent by the Court “duly translated into the French language.”
And he noted that “it will comply with the disposition of the judicial power, as well as with the norms established in the current Extradition Law and will immediately send the apostilled documents through diplomatic channels to the judicial authority of the Kingdom of Belgium for the corresponding process ” .
However, Correa’s lawyer, Christophe Marchand, assured in early May that the Belgian government refused to extradite the former president, who, according to his defense, was granted political asylum by the European country.
The ‘bribery’ case
Correa was convicted of aggravated bribery in the case “Bribes 2012-2016”a plot in which improper contributions were received in the presidential palace of Carondelet for the irregular financing of the Alianza País government movement, in exchange for the award of millionaire State contracts to companies, including the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.
In that same case of corruption, twenty people were convicted, including former officials such as former Vice President Jorge Glas, who is in prison.
According to the opinion of the case, Ecuador must recover 14.7 million dollars for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages.
(Keep reading: Justice of Ecuador orders that former Vice President Glas return to prison)
Correa, who governed Ecuador from 2007 to 2017, settled in Belgium shortly after the end of his mandate and has not returned to the country since the beginning of 2018, when investigative processes began to be opened against him and, in two of them, preventive detention orders that were not carried out.
Correa has been required for extradition on three occasions, once after being found guilty in the so-called “Balda Case”, and two others for the “Bribery Case”.
Despite rejecting Correa’s arrest request for extradition purposes from Belgium, for the kidnapping case of political opponent Fernando Balda, Interpol did locate Pablo Romero in Spain, who was his head of Intelligence, extradited to Ecuador in 2020 and sentenced to 9 years in prison.
EFE
More news
Monkeypox: confirm the first case in Latin America
Brazil: man dies asphyxiated by gas in the trunk of a police car
Texas shooting: Police admit delays in intervention at Robb School
#Rafael #Correa #Court #Ecuador #sends #extradition #request #Foreign #Ministry