Photo: EFE
Text: Editors of Cuba News
The Belgian government has approved the political asylum of former President of Ecuador Rafael Correa, according to lawyers defending the former president, confirmed by Correa himself on his Twitter profile.
According to the former president, a bulletin from the law firm indicates that Belgium is thereby recognizing the political persecution carried out against him by the Ecuadorian government.
After Correa was head of state of the Central American nation from 2007 to 2017, he became one of the main opponents of the government of Lenin Moreno, who was his deputy for years.
According to him, after coming to power, Moreno distanced himself from the political program of the Alianza País, a movement to which they both belonged.
sought for justice
Correa has been living in Belgium since 2017 and the asylum application was made after a court case against him was launched in Ecuador in 2018. At that time it was related, among other things, to the alleged kidnapping of an opponent.
He is also sentenced to eight years in prison and a ban on political work for alleged bribery between 2012 and 2016 involving national and international companies such as Brazil’s Odebrecht.
The case against him suggests that payments have been received from his government to fund former President Alianza País’ political movement in exchange for awarding millions of dollars in contracts to the companies, a BBC outlet reported at the time of the sentencing.
Correa has said the allegations against him are false and that he and his supporters were harassed by the police for their anti-government stance and had their political rights suspended just hours before he registered as a presidential candidate for last year’s elections.
Meanwhile, the Ecuadorian executive signed an extradition order against him. The President of the National Court of Justice of Ecuador, Iván Saquicela, announced in an interview for the media company Teleamazonas that he has signed an order to start the extradition proceedings of the former president.
In this sense, the current President of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, insisted on Twitter that Correa is not being politically persecuted, as he calls himself, but simply does not want to be brought to justice.