Rafael Correa launches a campaign in Belgium to prevent his extradition to Ecuador – 04/07/2018

Rafael Correa is preparing for a long extradition process that could lead to a deportation to Quito or political asylum status in Belgium, where he has resided since May. 39, last year. In his youth, Correa was a student at the University of Louvain and is married to the Belgian Anne Malherbe.

After Ecuadorian justice announced on Tuesday that she had launched an international arrest warrant against the former president, which he accuses of unlawful and unlawful badociation. having ordered in 2012 the kidnapping in Colombia of the political opponent Fernando Balda (aborted by the Colombian police), Rafael Correa began his campaign Wednesday to avoid extradition.

The Ecuadorian hired Christophe Marchand, one of the lawyers who, for the moment, prevented the extradited Belgian justice in Spain to the former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont . The cases are different because the issue of the Catalan leader has not been treated as a traditional extradition (where in the last stage there is a political decision) but by a European arrest and arrest order. discount, which is only handled by the judicial authorities.

Correa granted several interviews to the main agencies with the clear intention of beginning to prepare his defense. The French AFP told him that the arrest warrant issued by his country's justice is nothing more than a "conspiracy" of the current Ecuadorian government.

The former president believes that the trial will not even be brought before the Belgian courts because he considers that will be rejected upon his arrival at Interpol because this international agency "will take his time, badyze the case and will a politician will reject it. "

Assuming that Interpol reported the case to Belgium for the extradition of Correa, l. former President considers that Belgian judges will not accept extradition: "Never will such a guaranteed country give way to extradition or unjust injunction"

Christophe Marchand, l & # 39; Rafael Correa's lawyer in Belgium, told EFE that his client's file "is full of irregularities" and that Ecuadorian justice does not offer guarantees of a fair trial. Marchand considers that there is "a systematization of criminal actions against former leaders in many countries" in Latin America.

A spokesman for the Belgian Federal Prosecution confirmed Clarín that his services had not been received before noon. On Wednesday, no arrest warrant against Correa for an extradition process, nor Interpol himself nor the Belgian judicial authorities.

If the arrest warrant reaches the Belgian courts and finds that there might be a risk of escape, Rafael Correa could be detained during the extradition process . Interpol and the Belgian courts could reject the Ecuadorian judiciary if they believe that behind him there is, as Correa denounces, a political process.

On the contrary, they see no indication that the former Ecuadorian president will try to flee the judicial process In Belgium, they will probably release you with some precautions, such as the withdrawal of your pbadport. Correa currently lives legally in Belgium as the husband of a Belgian citizen, but this coverage alone does not guarantee that his extradition will be rejected.