The former Ecuadorian president in the presence of the king and queen
Belgium has granted refugee status to former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison for corruption in his country, the former head of state announced on Friday following the launch by Quito of a extradition request.
A certificate from the Belgian General Commissioner for Refugees and Stateless Persons, dated April 15 and consulted by AFP, grants the former president (2007-2017) refugee status “within the meaning of the Geneva Convention (…) and its additional protocol”.
“It’s a relief. When they give you this protection, it shows that you are persecuted”Rafael Correa told AFP by telephone, confirming information from the Spanish agency EFE.
Claiming that he was the subject of “political persecutions” and judicial in Ecuador, the ex-president had applied for asylum at the end of 2018 in Belgium, the country of origin of his wife, where he has lived since the end of his mandate in 2017.
For his part, the president of the Ecuadorian National Court of Justice, Ivan Saquicela, announced on Friday that he had signed the day before “the order initiating the process of extradition, as it corresponds to the law, of Rafael Vicente Correa”following a conviction in absentia handed down in 2020.
The next step is “that at the diplomatic level, the necessary and indispensable measures are taken so that the extradition takes place” from Belgium, he explained in an interview with the Teleamazonas television channel.
“We have a firm sentence. There is the agreement with Belgium and the international agreements, plus the law on extradition, which support our request in strict law. There is no value judgment here“, insisted Mr. Saquicela.
“They will still make a fool of themselves. They have already been refused several times. But they don’t care”commented Mr. Correa.
Earlier on his Twitter account, he called the head of the National Court of Justice “clown” and of “puppet” of the government.
Rafael Correa was sentenced in abstentia in September 2020 to eight years in prison for corruption. Justice considered that Mr. Correa and several of his former collaborators had received bribes in exchange for contracts with various companies.
Among the firms suspected was the Brazilian construction group Odebrecht, at the heart of numerous corruption trials in Latin America.
This conviction had annihilated his hopes of returning to politics, the Constitution prohibiting for life to appear before voters in cases of corruption.
The former president has always claimed his innocence and denounces a plot fomented by his rival, his former vice-president and successor to the presidency, Lenin Moreno.
Mr. Correa is also being prosecuted in Colombia for the short-lived kidnapping of an opponent there in 2012.