At the 15 th of April Belgium granted political asylum to former President Rafael Correa, preventing any extradition attempt sponsored by the Ecuadorian government to have the former president serve an eight-year sentence for bribery.
Correa assures that the asylum supports his thesis of political persecution to “tell them squarely that … all their talk about corruption is a farce,” the former president told EL TIEMPO. And it adds that according to the 1951 Geneva Convention and the 1967 Additional Protocol Reasons for asylum are persecution based on race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. “More is not possible,” he emphasized.
The asylum order was released on Friday by supporters of the former president, while Supreme Court President Iván Saquicela officially reported that he opposes, on the basis of the extradition treaty signed between Ecuador and Belgium and the United Nations convention, Correa had an extradition request signed by Correa, which had to be reported to Brussels by the Ecuadorian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“The federal government of Belgium has granted political asylum to the former President of Ecuador, the economist Rafael Correa Delgado, thereby acknowledging the political persecution against him,” read a press release signed by the press office of Correa’s lawyers in the country. The Ecuadorian foreign ministry said in a statement that it was not aware of any official source of the asylum granted to the former president.
The Ecuadorian foreign ministry said in a statement that it was not aware of any official source of the asylum granted to the former president.
According to the EFE agency, Christophe Marchand, Correa’s lawyer in Belgium, said he was “happy” with the resolution of this case, knowing “how difficult it is for Belgium to grant political asylum”. He also pointed out that he presented the “documentation on the criminal proceedings against him (by Correa) with political motives” and “aimed at obstructing his political career”, which led to him being granted asylum in that country.
The process
In September 2020, the Ecuadorian judiciary completed the sentence against the former president because he considers him an “instigator of a crime of aggravated passive bribery” in the case known as “bribery,” a corruption scheme the judges said was structured between 2012 and 2016 to fund the political movement Alianza País, founded by the former president. The case involved Brazilian Odebrecht and other domestic and foreign companies who had paid to secure millions of dollars in contracts.
Along with Correa, 20 other people were convicted, including his former Vice President Jorge Glas; former legal secretary Alexis Mera; the Secretary of State for Administration, Vinicio Alvarado, Assembly members and businessmen. Although Correa was not shown handling money in the bribery case, the judges stated that he was the author “under the incitement modality of his cognitive influence.”
“It’s too rough a montage. I was convicted of mental influencing (sic) and they took away my political rights. The verdict of the only criminal case that followed in the midst of the pandemic was withdrawn hours before the registration of my candidacy for the 2021 elections,” stresses the former president, recalling that “one of the judges of the ridiculous verdict is Iván Saquicela, of all people later appointed her President of the Court because of this persecution.”
“Not only is this a flagrant case of lawfare, it is flagrant. If anything remotely similar had happened in progressive governments, it would have been a global scandal,” he stressed. Correa also has a pending kidnapping case for the illegal arrest of opposition figure Fernando Balda, registered in Bogotá in 2012, with the intervention of undercover Ecuadorian police officers on orders from that country’s Secretariat of Intelligence. Strictly speaking, according to Marchand, the application for asylum was made in 2018 after the Balda process had started in Ecuador.
Strictly speaking, according to Correa’s lawyer, the application for asylum was made in 2018 after the trial of the Balda case in Ecuador had begun.
With Belgium’s decision, the extradition request could become another failed attempt the Ecuadorian judiciary for Correa to serve his sentence in this area. This is because Interpol has not effectively responded to at least three requests from that country to issue a red notice against the former president, who settled in Belgium, his wife Anne Malherbe’s country of birth, after leaving government.
“This is the third request to Belgium – stresses 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 convicted in the so-called bribery case have also been rejected, many of them with unusually harsh language from Interpol, such as an attack on human rights and doubts about due process.” .
In fact, Interpol claims that the trials were politically motivated and this allowed Correa to move freely and permanently around different countries of the world and even to interview various leaders of the region for its TV show Conversing with Correa, broadcast by the network Russia Today based in Moscow.
“Interpol, in debt”
For Balda, Correa’s prosecutor in the kidnapping case, Interpol Ecuador owes a debt of gratitude for not taking action against Correa despite acting with others involved, as in the case of former intelligence minister Pablo Romero, who was arrested in Spain and extradited to that country where he is being held.
García stressed that the extradition order requested by the National Court of Justice could also be activated in other countries where the former president may go.
The activist points out that other countries have responded to the Ecuadorian legal requirements, recalling that Colombia has arrested and convicted those involved in his kidnapping. Lawyer Ramiro García told EL TIEMPO that Ecuador must request the revocation of political asylum because there are documents, procedural arguments and sufficiently clear judicial measures that have been carried out in due process and have proved the former President’s responsibility for the facts assessed which political asylum would not be justified.
In a dialogue with this medium, 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 go.
Far from being an achievement for Correa, the jurist believes political asylum is covered for future actions, considering there are other sensitive issues for the former president, such as the arrest of Colombian businessman Álex in the United States Saab and currently , the former Ecuadorian auditor Carlos Polit, implicated in acts of corruption and money laundering.
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