Belgium granted political asylum to Rafael Correa and blocks extradition to Ecuador to serve his sentence for corruption

Belgium granted political asylum to the former president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, the former president's lawyer, Christophe Marchand, confirmed to the EFE news agency.

In a resolution to which EFE had access and dated April 15, the General Commissariat for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGRS) of Belgium confirms that it grants Correa refugee status in this country, where he had been residing since 2017 because his wife, Ann Malherbede, came from him.

Marchand explained that the asylum application had been launched after a legal process began in Ecuador in 2018 that linked it to the alleged kidnapping of an opponent in 2012, the so-called “Balda case”.

Belgium required them to prove that there was political persecution in Ecuador against Correa, for which they provided “documentation on politically motivated criminal cases against them” and “aimed at impeding his political career,” said the Belgian lawyer.

Marchand declared himself “happy” with the resolution of this case, because, he assured, after 25 years in the profession he knows “how difficult it is for Belgium to grant political asylum”.

Correa, who ruled from 2007 to 2017 as one of the leaders of the Latin American left, resides after the end of his term in Belgium and he is sentenced in Ecuador to eight years in prison and political disqualification for the “Bribes 2012-2016” case.

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