President Lenin Moreno urges Rafael Correa to “face up” before the country’s justice

Ecuadornews:

The president of Ecuador, Lenin Moreno, urged his predecessor, Rafael Correa, to return to the country to “show his face” in the case of the kidnapping of an opponent, for which he was prosecuted and is a fugitive, and guaranteed full judicial independence.

Since the legal process began, in which Correa was linked on June 18, Moreno had not ruled on the matter, keeping an official silence, while his ministers were limited to reiterate the separation of powers that exists in the country and the respect to the resolutions of the judges.

In the last chapter of the case that splashed on Correa, on July 5 it was learned that the Ecuadorian National Court of Justice (CNJ) asked Interpol for the red search and arrest notification of the former president, who has been living in Belgium for a year for failure to comply with the precautionary measure of appearing before the courts of Quito.

The Ecuadorian president spoke for the first time on the issue in an informative talk on July 5 with foreign media at the government headquarters, although he tried to show distance about the judicial process by stating that “I am not interested if Mr. Correa is arrested or not (…) hopefully not guilty. ”

Then he urged him to “show his face” and assured that he will have a fair trial. “Now it is an independent justice, Mr. Correa must have the complete certainty that this justice works autonomously and independently, that he has no misgivings about coming to Ecuador, this is his country and that he faces justice,” he said.

When recalling that Correa himself called on fugitive Ecuadorians to return and face justice, and remember that a former president returned to Ecuador and spent a few months in prison until being declared innocent, Moreno assured that the country is not looking for “revenge” but justice, “the truth defends itself”.

Regarding the argument used by Correa that he is the target of a plot and persecution of the Ecuadorian Executive, the current president made a joke that “on the argument that he is a political prisoner, the same can be said by (Mexican drug trafficker) Chapo Guzmán.”

“We Ecuadorians know that this is not the case, we know that many things have happened during that period (of Correa’s government) and all we want is for there to be truth and justice.”

When asked about the extradition framework, he confirmed that there is an agreement with Belgium that dates back a hundred years. For his part, the Ecuadorian Foreign Minister, José Valencia, stressed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its missions abroad constitute “an actor in support of the efforts” related to the resolutions of the Court.

“The Foreign Ministry does nothing but comply with the provisions of the Ecuadorian law in order to facilitate the management of these requests for extradition,” he said. (I)

Source: https://www.eltelegrafo.com.ec/noticias/politica/3/moreno-correa-justicia