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Balda says he will go to Europe to deny that Correa is politically persecuted
Posted On 03 Jul 2018
Ecuadornews:
The ex-legislator Fernando Balda, who accuses former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa of ordering his kidnapping in Colombia in 2012, said he will go to Belgium and Spain to deny that the former president is a political persecutor, as he has warned in those countries.
Balda, in an appearance before the press in the port city of Guayaquil, said he will initiate a legal action before the embassy of Ecuador in Belgium to present the judicial file that links Correa to his case.
With this action it is sought that the officials of that Embassy “be clear that Rafael Correa is not a political persecuted, but a seasoned criminal delinquent who committed the crime of kidnapping,” Balda said in statements reproduced by the Ecuavisa channel.
“I will also visit the embassy of Spain and I will take the background of the file that links the former national secretary of intelligence Pablo Romero,” who is also involved in the case and who has applied for asylum in the Iberian country.
“If those countries decide to grant asylum to those who (Correa and Romero) have committed serious crimes of State, because that is already something of each of those nations,” said Balda.
On the other hand, the complainant announced that tomorrow his lawyers will ask the National Court of Justice a hearing to replace the precautionary measures set against Correa, who did not appear before the Secretariat of that court, as the judge had ordered. Daniella Camacho, who follows the case of alleged kidnapping of Balda.
Judge Camacho ordered on June 18 that Correa appear every 15 days at the Court in Quito and the first appearance was due today, although the former president appeared before the Embassy of his country in Belgium, where he lives with his family and where he returned to defend his innocence and ensure that everything is due to a supposed political persecution against him.
Failing to comply with the order of Judge Camacho and rejecting that he could do it in Brussels, Balda said he will ask the magistrate to request Interpol to locate Correa so that he can be brought to the country and be brought to justice.
Judge Camacho set a hearing tomorrow to analyze Correa’s defense request to review the precautionary measure to appear before the Court in Quito every fifteen days, and to allow it to do so before the Embassy in Belgium, under diplomatic regulations
According to Balda, that diligence would no longer fit and instead he will demand that Correa’s preventive detention be ordered immediately.
The president of the Bar Association of the province of Pichincha, whose capital is Quito, Ramiro Garcia, considered today “enough” that Correa has appeared before the Consulate in Belgium, in order to “comply with the precautionary measure.”
“From my point of view, this is enough to verify compliance with what the judge ordered,” Garcia told Efe, noting that “within the criteria of rationality, it does not make sense to ask a person to travel half the world to present five minutes having a delegation consult there “.
He pointed out that once the fiscal investigation is completed, the trial preparatory hearing is held and the Prosecutor’s Office is accused and it is decided by the judge to call him to trial. Correa will then have to appear at the trial hearing.
According to Garcia, in fifteen days the fiscal instruction will end, after which a hearing is convened to formulate the opinion, in which the prosecutor will indicate if he accuses or not, and the judge, if he calls or not to trial. (I)
