Belgian authorities have granted refugee status to former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, who has been sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison for corruption, he said shortly after Quito announced that he had applied for extradition.
Mr Korea told AFP that Belgium, his wife’s home country where he lives after the end of his term in 2017, had granted him asylum, confirming information previously transmitted by the Spanish news agency EFE.
A certificate from the Belgian General Secretariat for Refugees and Stateless Persons, dated 15 April and consulted by the French Agency, states that the former head of state (2007-2017) was granted refugee status “under the Geneva Convention (…) and the Additional Protocol “.
For his part, Ivan Sakisela, the president of the Ecuadorian court, announced yesterday Friday that he had signed the previous “order to start the extradition process (…) of Rafael Vicente Korea”.
The next step will be “at the diplomatic level”, “the necessary measures must be taken for the extradition” from Belgium, he explained in an interview given to the television network Teleamazonas.
Mr Korea was sentenced in absentia in September to eight years in prison for corruption, an unspecified crime that also applies to money laundering, extortion and illicit wealth.
His conviction dashed his hopes of returning to the political arena. The Constitution permanently prohibits anyone from running in elections if convicted of corruption.
Ecuador’s justice has ruled that Mr Korea and his former associates were bribed by various companies in exchange for public procurement. Among the companies alleged to have offered bribes is the Brazilian construction group Odebrecht, synonymous with numerous investigations and corruption trials swept by politicians in various Latin American countries.
The former president denies his innocence and denounces a conspiracy carried out by his political rival, his former vice president and successor in the presidency, Lenin Moreno. He formally applied for asylum in Belgium at the end of 2018.
“We have a court ruling on the sentence of imprisonment. There is a (bilateral) agreement with Belgium and international conventions, beyond the extradition law, that legally support our request. There is no question of a rating crisis here,” he said. Mr. Sakisela.
Rafael Correa reacted to the judge’s statements via Twitter, calling him the top judicial “clown”, “puppet” of the government of President Guillermo Lasso.
Mr Korea’s extradition is also being sought by Colombia, which is seeking justice for the temporary abduction of an Ecuadorian opposition leader in Colombia in 2012.
The Belgian Foreign Ministry did not respond when asked to comment on the case by Reuters.
The Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry said it had not been informed that Brussels had granted asylum to the former president. Judge Sakisela also declared ignorance.
Source: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ
Source: Capital
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