On April 15, Belgium granted political asylum to former President Rafael Correa, thus putting a lock on any extradition attempt promoted by the Ecuadorian Government, so that the former president fulfills an eight-year criminal sentence for bribery.
Correa assures that the asylum supports his thesis of political persecution, to “clearly tell them to their faces that… all their talk of corruption is a farce,” the former president told EL TIEMPO. And he adds that, according to the Geneva Convention of 1951 and the additional protocol of 1967, the grounds for asylum are persecution based on race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. “There is no more,” he emphasized.
The asylum resolution was released on Friday by supporters of the former president, while the president of the Supreme Court of Justice, Iván Saquicela, officially reported that, based on the extradition treaty signed between Ecuador and Belgium, and the Convention of the United Nations Against Corruption, had signed a request for Correa’s extradition, which had to be notified to Brussels by the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry.
“The Belgian federal government granted political asylum to the former Ecuadorian president, economist Rafael Correa Delgado, thus recognizing the political persecution against him,” says a press release signed by the press office of Correa’s lawyers in the country. European. The Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry, through a statement, indicated that it did not know from an official source the asylum granted to the former president.
The Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry, through a statement, indicated that it did not know from an official source the asylum granted to the former president.
According to the EFE agency, Christophe Marchand, Correa’s lawyer in Belgium, declared himself “happy” with the resolution of this case since he knows “how difficult it is for Belgium to grant political asylum.” He also pointed out that he presented the “documentation on the criminal cases against him (Correa) with political motivations” and “aimed at impeding his political career,” which led to his being granted asylum in that country.
The process
In September 2020, the Ecuadorian justice finalized the sentence against the former president for considering him “instigator of a crime of aggravated passive bribery” in the case known as “bribery”, a corruption scheme that, according to the judges, was structured between 2012 and 2016, to finance the Alianza País political movement, founded by the former president. The case involved the Brazilian Odebrecht and other national and foreign companies that had paid to obtain million-dollar contracts.
Along with Correa, 20 other people were sentenced, including his former vice president, Jorge Glas; the former legal secretary, Alexis Mera; the undersecretary of the administration, Vinicio Alvarado, assembly members and businessmen. Although Correa has not been shown handling money in the bribery case, the judges declared that he was the author “under the instigation modality, through his cognitive influence.” Given this, ironically, the former president says he was accused of “psychic influence”
“It’s too crude a montage. I was convicted of psychic influence (sic) and they took away my political rights. The sentence, from the only criminal trial that followed in the middle of the pandemic, was taken out hours before registering my candidacy for the 2021 elections,” insists the former president, recalling that “one of the judges of the ridiculous sentence is precisely Iván Saquicela, whom Because of this persecution, they later named him President of the Court.”
“Not only is this an obvious case of lawfare, but cheeky. If anything remotely similar had happened in progressive governments, it would have been a worldwide scandal,” he stressed. Correa also has a pending trial for kidnapping, due to the illegal retention of opposition activist Fernando Balda, registered in Bogotá in 2012, with the intervention of undercover Ecuadorian police officers under orders from the Intelligence Secretariat of this country. Precisely, according to Marchand’s statements, the asylum application had been submitted in 2018 after the Balda case process began in Ecuador.
Precisely, according to statements by Correa’s lawyer, the asylum application had been submitted in 2018 after the process of the Balda case began in Ecuador.
With Belgium’s decision, the extradition request could become another failed attempt of the Ecuadorian justice for Correa to serve his sentence in this territory. This is because Interpol has not responded effectively to at least three requests that this country has made to issue a red notice against the former president, who after finishing his government settled in Belgium, the country of birth of his wife, Anne Maleherbe.
“This is the third request to Belgium – highlights Correa -. They have all been turned away, even without asylum, and will once again make a fool of themselves.” And he added: “All red alert requests to Interpol from all those sentenced in the so-called Bribery Case have also been rejected, many of them with unusually harsh expressions from Interpol, such as an attack on human rights and doubts about due process.” .
In fact, Interpol maintains that the processes are politically motivated and this has allowed Correa to freely and permanently move around different countries in the world, even interviewing various leaders of the region for his television program, Conversing with Correa, which was broadcast by the network Russia Today, based in Moscow.
‘Interpol, in debt’
For Balda, Correa’s accuser in the kidnapping case, Interpol is indebted to Ecuador because it did not act against Correa even though it did with others involved, as is the case of former Intelligence Secretary Pablo Romero, who was arrested in Spain and extradited to this country, where he is detained.
García stressed that the extradition order requested by the National Court of Justice could also be activated in other countries to which the former president may eventually go.
The activist points out that other countries have responded to the Ecuadorian legal requirements and recalled that Colombia arrested and sentenced those involved in his kidnapping. The jurist Ramiro García told EL TIEMPO that Ecuador must request the revocation of political asylum because there is documentation, procedural argument and duly clear judicial actions, which were carried out under due process and demonstrated the responsibility of the former president in the facts judged, for which political asylum would not be justified.
García, in dialogue with this medium, stressed that the extradition order requested by the National Court of Justice could also be activated in other countries to which the former president may eventually go.
Far from it being an achievement for Correa, the jurist considers that political asylum is being covered for future actions, taking into account that there are other sensitive issues for the former president, such as the arrest, in the United States, of Colombian businessman Álex Saab and, currently, , of the former Ecuadorian comptroller Carlos Polit, involved in acts of corruption and money laundering.
ANA LUCIA ROMAN
SPECIAL FOR WEATHER
I REMOVE
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