The Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry affirms that they have not received any official communication.
The former president of Ecuador Rafael Correa, sentenced in his country to eight years in prison for corruption, received refugee status in Belgium, according to a copy of the certificate issued by the General Commissioner for Refugees and Stateless Persons, to which AFP had access.
The document is dated April 15. This same Friday, the Ecuadorian judicial authorities requested the extradition of the former president.
“It’s a relief. Because when they give you this protection it shows that you are being persecuted,” Correa told AFP in a telephone contact this Friday.
In relation to extradition request signed on the day, the former president said that the Ecuadorian authorities “are going to make a fool of themselves once more. They have already been denied several times. But they don’t care.”
In Quito, the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry indicated in a statement that it had not been notified of the granting of political asylum by any “official source.”
Correa had presented his request for refuge in Belgium in 2018, the country where his wife is from and to which he moved in 2017, when he left office following a decade in the presidency.
The former socialist president, who governed between 2007 and 2017, had supported his lawsuit alleging that he was the subject of “political persecution” and judicial in his country.
This happened following the arrival of power of Lenín Moreno (2012-2021), who was Correa’s binomial between 2007 and 2013 and who benefited from his support to be elected president.
Final judgment
Correa, 59, was sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison for the crime of bribery, in the so-called Bribes 2012-2016 case. This crime, as well as those of embezzlement, concussion and illicit enrichment are imprescriptible in Ecuador.
The former president defends his innocence and criticizes that he was linked to the process for $6,000 that entered his bank account and that he alleges that they were from a loan from a party fund.
The sentence once morest him was ultimately ratified in 2020, which also disqualified him for life from holding elected positions.
According to the Ecuadorian justice, during his tenure both the former president, as well as former officials and businessmen participated in a corruption scheme in which bribes were paid in exchange for contracts. Eighteen people were convicted in the case.
The Ecuadorian Prosecutor’s Office maintains that those involved asked for bribes for almost 7.6 million dollars.
The president of the National Court of Justice, Iván Saquicela, pointed out that he is also not aware of the granting of asylum to the former president.
«I continue working on extradition because it is the fulfillment of my duty. If extradition from Belgium is denied, it does not escape me but the Ecuadorian State,” the judge said at a press conference.
In February, the Ecuadorian Attorney General’s Office seized the assets of Correa and other government officials linked to the case. In November, the justice ordered the seizure of the bank accounts of those convicted.
In its attempt to capture Correa, the Ecuadorian justice system has asked Interpol to include him on its red broadcast list, but the requests have been rejected.
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