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Chancellery sends Bolivia judicial report of the Ochoa and Espín fugitives
Posted On 06 Feb 2019
Ecuadornews:
The Ecuadorian Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Valencia, reported on Tuesday that he sent the Bolivian Foreign Ministry a judicial report on former Sofia Sofín and former communications superintendent Carlos Ochoa, who would be processing asylum in that nation.
In a press conference, Valencia pointed out that the judicial documents guarantee that the two citizens “are wanted by Ecuadorian judges.”
“They are required by courts of our country, for common infractions. Therefore, there is no type of political consideration, “he said.
He clarified that the work of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is to put this judicial information for consideration by the Bolivian authorities and pointed out that the case is part of a judicial issue.
The head of Ecuadorian diplomacy said that they have not yet received a response from the Bolivarian Government, but that from their State portfolio, they will follow up on the issue.
Interior Minister María Paula Romo reported last week that the former communications superintendent and the ex-Esmeralda Espín were in Bolivia, where “they would be taking steps to request asylum.”
The Ecuadorian National Court of Justice issued a preventive detention order against Espin last month after she failed to comply with the requirement to appear regularly before the Court, after being accused of trying to influence a prosecution witness in a case that splashed to former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017).
On November 7, a court of the Ecuadorian National Court of Justice issued a writ of appeal against Correa (who lives in Belgium) and three other ex-officers for the case of the kidnapping in Colombia in 2012 to the political activist Fernando Balda.
The trial of two Ecuadorian intelligence agents, confessed authors of the kidnapping of Balda in Colombia, began last Monday at the National Court of Justice and continues on Tuesday with, among others, the presentation of testimonial evidence by the Prosecutor’s Office.
Also, an Ecuadorian judge ordered preventive detention, for investigative purposes, against Ochoa, accused of alleged forgery and irregular use of the document.
Ochoa has been accused of having committed abuses in the application of the Communication Law, branded as a “gag” by journalists’ associations, as well as allegedly having altered a text to punish the media. (I)
