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Between the asylum and the exile
Posted On 09 Nov 2018
Ecuadornews:
Thecall to trial that Judge Daniella Camacho issued on Wednesday for theplagiarism of Fernando Balda complicates the judicial horizon of formerPresident Rafael Correa.
Although Correa cannot be tried in absentia, the preventive detention issued in August by Judge Camacho remains in force. Correa, if he does not voluntarily come to trial or is captured, could not return to Ecuador in at least seven years, until the criminal action prescribes.
But the call to trial could be an element that Interpol considers to issue the red diffusion requested by Ecuador, said former prosecutor Fabián Almeida.
The former official explained that Interpol has a legal department that must surely be analyzing the case.
If the judge issued the call to trial, it means that she already has elements that can become evidence in a possible trial, said Almeida.
But the jurist Xavier Mejía thinks that a call to trial does not break the state of innocence of the former president. He agrees with Almeida that it is one more element to ask for red circulation. He points out that the preventive detention, ratified on Wednesday, is a precautionary measure that Correa is avoiding by not complying with the principle of immediacy to the process.
Mejía insists that an element of greater weight for Ecuador to obtain the location and capture would be a final judgment. Faced with the suspension of the trial because he is a fugitive, the lawyer reiterated: “Not to be prosecuted does not mean that he is guilty.”
If Interpol issues the red broadcast, the former president could be located and captured in at least 192 countries. In the days leading up to the reinstatement of the trial preparatory hearing, in social networks co-operatives and Correa lawyers announced a supposed decision of the international police.
“Interpol rejects red broadcast request against Rafael Correa for being a political imputation,” wrote Caupolicán Ochoa, Correa’s lawyer, on his Twitter account.
The Interior Minister, María Paula Romo, responded on Wednesday that “no information has arrived. When this happens, it will immediately be communicated to the citizenship. “
Given the possibility of having an international arrest warrant, the former president is increasingly analyzing the mechanism of political asylum in Belgium, the country where he lives since 2017, after leaving power to Lenin Moreno.
On that request, the information is contradictory. The AFP agency, citing sources close to Correa, reported yesterday that the ex-president filed an asylum application in Belgium on June 25. He did it a few days before Judge Camacho ordered his prison and asked Interpol for his red diffusion.
The Spanish agency EFE instead cited Correa himself, who indicated that he has not requested asylum but is studying that alternative. “I continue to study, I will use all the rights I have to defend myself and my family,” he assured the agency.
In his Twitter account, the former head of state said that “I expected absolutely nothing from a justice that receives slogans and not arguments.”
Who expects an answer to the asylum request is Pablo Romero, his former secretary of Intelligence. He is a fugitive in Spain, a country that yesterday accepted the extradition requested by Ecuador.
His lawyer, Stalin Oviedo, said that this process could take several years because there must be a trial and hearings.
In addition to Romero and Correa, the judge called the trial of the ex-agents Raúl Chicaiza and Diana Falcón, as the perpetrators of the crime, for the plagiarism and kidnapping of Fernando Balda registered on August 13, 2012.
In thiscase, only Chicaiza and Falcón can be tried because they are detained.
Data
Kidnapping
Is punished in two articles of the Comprehensive Criminal Organic Code (COIP).
Penalty
Between five and seven years if a person is deprived of liberty against his will.
Sentence
From 10to 13 years if it is kidnapping for ideological purposes, among others. (I)
