Belgium granted political asylum to the former president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, as confirmed to Efe by the former president’s lawyer, Christophe Marchand. In a resolution to which that agency had access and dated April 15, the General Commissioner for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGRS) of Belgium confirms that it grants Correa refugee status in this country, where he has lived since 2017 because his wife, Ann Malherbede, comes from there.
(Read here: The network of corruption that has Ecuador as its epicenter)
While this information is known, The president of the National Court of Justice of Ecuador, Iván Saquisela, announced this Friday that he had signed Correa’s extradition request. The information was advanced by the Ecuadorian chain Teleamazonas.
Marchand explained that the asylum application had been launched after a legal process began in Ecuador in 2018 that related him to the alleged kidnapping of an opponent in 2012.the so-called “Balda case”.
Belgium required them to prove that there was political persecution in Ecuador against Correa, for which they provided “documentation on the criminal cases against him with political motivations” and “destined to prevent your political career”said the Belgian lawyer.
Marchand declared himself “happy” with the resolution of this case, since, he assured, after 25 years in the profession he knows “how difficult it is for Belgium to grant political asylum.”
Correa, who governed from 2007 to 2017 as one of the benchmarks of the Latin American left, resides after the end of his term in Belgium and an eight-year prison sentence and political disqualification weighs on him in Ecuador. for the “Bribes 2012-2016” case.
What is known about the extradition request?
On the other hand, Saquisela, in a televised interview, gave details of the order he signed: “I have already signed the order initiating the extradition process as corresponds to the right of the citizen and former president Rafael Correa. The order has to do with the executed sentence for the so-called Bribery Case, which in law is a crime of bribery”.
Through Twitter, former president Correa reacted to the statement by the head of the Ecuadorian Supreme. “Another piece of paper, unfortunately not only of this (…) but of the entire judicial system and the Government of which he is a puppet. Do you want to bet?” the former president trilled.
What is this case that is mentioned?
(In other news: Flights, dollars and politics behind the Ecuadorian dossier that worries Saab)
In 2020, a Criminal Court of the National Court of Justice sentenced Correa and his former vice president, Jorge Glas, to eight years in prison for aggravated bribery; within the case called “bribes 2012-2016”. The sentence also determined the loss of his political rights for 25 years.
The process began with a journalistic investigation by Fernando Villavicencio and Christian Zurita, called “green rice”alluding to the identifying color of Alianza País, a political movement founded by Correa, through which a scheme of bribes was denounced that was allegedly carried out from the highest levels of government to various private companies in exchange for contracts with the State, among them the Brazilian Odebrecht.
The Court determined that former President Rafael Correa knew of the “undue contributions” and in its sentence it indicates that it has been proven that the payments made by the businessmen, around 6.7 million dollars, were reported to Correa and Glas.
The basis of responsibility emerges, among other investigations, from the statements of two collaborators of the Correa government, his former adviser Pamela Martínez and former assistant Laura Terán, who delivered files, notebooks and revealed a plot to raise parallel money that was used by Alianza Country for political and proselytizing purposes.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from Efe
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