Double standards in Ecuador: Correa ready to extradite Belarus who faces death threat
Less than a year ago an Ecuadorean judge denied a request to extradite Aliaksandr Barankov to Belarus, the former Soviet bloc nation whose president has been nicknamed “Europe's last dictator”, reports the US and European media.
But now, the former financial crimes investigator is in imminent danger of losing his political refugee status and being sent home, where he says he could be killed because he unearthed corruption at the highest levels of government.
Barankov's fate could be decided any moment, less than a week after Ecuador granted political asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, painting itself a proud haven for the politically persecuted.
Prosecutors in Belarus accuse the 30-year-old Barankov of fraud and extortion. He calls the charges bogus, retribution for his having exposed a petroleum-smuggling ring involving senior officials of President Alexander Lukashenko's government, including relatives of the leader.
Barankov is backed by rights activists at home, where Lukashenko has ruled for 18 years by fixing elections, quashing free speech, jailing dissidents and keeping 80% of industry in state hands.
“They accuse me of fraud and corruption,” Barankov said by phone from prison Friday. ”It's easy to accuse (someone) of this because the police, courts and prosecutor's office are employees of the president and his family.“
Barankov arrived in Ecuador in August 2009 after fleeing the charges, which he said were filed after he uncovered the smuggling ring. Belarus has been trying to extradite him ever since.
In 2010, when he overstayed his visa, he was imprisoned for 55 days but was freed after authorities granted him refugee status, finding merit in his claim of political persecution.
Belarus continued to press for his extradition, but Judge Carlos Ramirez of Ecuador's highest court, denied it in October 2011, finding the evidence of Barankov's alleged crimes inadequate.
Then, on June 7, after a revised extradition request from Belarus, Barankov was arrested by 15 police officers who hauled him from his home in a middle-class neighbourhood of northern Quito.
Later that month, Lukashenko visited Ecuador for two days, signing agreements on trade, education, agriculture and the eventual exchange of diplomats with President Rafael Correa. A preliminary defence cooperation agreement was also signed.
Under Correa, Ecuador has been deepening commercial and political ties with US rivals including Iran, Russia, China and Venezuela.
”Everything changed after Lukashenko came,“ Barankov said by phone from Quito's cold, overcrowded century-old Prison No. 1. ”I want Ecuadoreans to open their eyes and see what's happening to me.“
An official at the National Court of Justice said that Ramirez could rule as early as this week on the new extradition request and that Barankov could lose despite his refugee status.
It would then be up to Correa to decide whether he is extradited.
”He cannot be condemned to death or to life in prison because there is a signed guarantee from the Belarusian government that assures us of this. The guarantee was delivered during Lukashenko's visit” said a court official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The official was not authorized to make statements to the press.
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96 comments Feed
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Any country that seeks links with regimes who systematically abuse human rights and then claims to be trying to protect an alleged rapist does not deserve to have an embassy in London.
If Barankov is extradited and murdered the world should treat Correa and Ecuador for what they will rightly desrve to be, pariahs and I could not give a ferk if I spelled that wrong, the meaning is clear enough!
Like distinguishing between Assange and Wikileaks we must distinguish between Correa and Ecuador. The institutions of Equador seemed to be doing fine on the rights and wrongs of this case until Correa stuck his nose in.
Correa is a fool dragging Equador down a futile path. I hope the institutions in Ecuador win the battle over his corrupt presidency. As for Assange - let his holiday in the embassy be long and mind bendingly dull. He should have found himself a prison/embassy with an exercise yard and a pool.
I think Ms Khan et al can also wave goodbye to the bail monies they stumped up.
McKinnon is subject to the due process of law but so far hasn't been extradited to the US. As far as I know he hasn't run off to some seedy Foreign Embassy to claim asylum.
And then we have Julian Assange.................accused under Swedish law of criminal offences against two women........ Even fabulous George reckons his behaviour wasn't etiquette. Whether it was or wasn't criminal is not up to me, you, George, the UK Supreme Court, El Presidente of Ecuador or some Argentine Muppet......Its up to the Swedish Courts, if they still want him.
Personally I would like him and Ecuador out of my Country at the earliest opportunity.
Lets wait and see what happens to Barankov. If he goes back Ecuador will stand accused of the most disgraceful double standards.
I don't agree with what he said but it shows that he is engaging in US bashing to please Chavez.
That apartment must be getting small fast. I am sure between MI-6 and the NSA, everything is known about their plans.
- www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nqv1DSTVv4
Aug 22nd, 2012 - 12:04 pm
This is 'Early Onset Oh!-feck-it-I-think-I-might-have-made-a-mistake-itis'.
Although I don't see why he wants to 'stay friends' with the UK but pull Uncle Sam's tail for the sake of a few favours with Fat Chav. Aren't the UK supposed to be the USA's lapdog? Wouldn't this cement Ecuador's position as Venezuela's lapdog?
There is a double standard right there alongside the Aliaksandr Barankov case. Maybe in Latam two double standards equal one 'standard' standard?
Anyway. he won't get an apology if this government wants my vote at the next election because there is nothing for us to apologise for. Ecuador can find their own way out of this mess seeing as it was a mess of their own making.
The irony is that 'the threat' to suspend the embassy buildings political status was in itself a 'get out of this mess free card' offered by the UK government confidentially. By twisting and turning it and shouting about it from the roof tops the only way out for Ecuador now is going to be a very humiliating climb down.
They still haven't reconciled the concept of child like politics with the very different concept grown up intergovernmental diplomacy. The UK government will keep very quiet now and watch the silly throb jockeys squirm.
Ecuador really shut you up, didn't they? Ecuador of all!!
Now, kindly do as Ecuador tells you to and stay the fook out of their territory :) Old empire...
Pathetic...
If Assange is innocent they he has decided to spend his time locked away in a little office rather than defend himself in a court of law and then be a free man. While this goes on the world continues to see how small minded political leaders lose their temper and can be played like a banjo.
Perhaps you lot could learn a thing or two from the old empire rather than the Nazis or Communists which we stood up to and defeated.
Of the 3: Pinochet, Mckinnon and Assange which should be (should have been) extradited?
Pinochet: committed no crime in Spain, therefore no extradition to Spain.
McKinnon: would face the death penalty in US, therefore no extradition to US.
Assange: accused of rape in Sweden, no threat of death penalty, therefore extradition approved.
Seems perfectly fair to me, unless of course “justice” should be reserved for those you don’t like.
Aug 22nd, 2012 - 01:44 pm
Because Diego Garcia is irrelevant to this issue.
That is why I say we must let moral rule, not law. Your side has this awkward way if always finding a good excuse as to why your criminals shouldn't be tried.
I too want to see Assange destroy the Swedes non existant proofs, but as the farce is too obvious, making sure USA doesn't get their dirty hands on him, is top priority.
Aug 22nd, 2012 - 02:58 pm
Yes it is obvious. It is obvious that Assange is trying to avoid Swedish justice and is using the threat of extraordinary rendition to the USA as a smoke screen.
Also if I we you Guzz I would be careful about saying things like “we must let moral rule, not the law”, after all morals are subjective and what you preach is that people should be judged on a whim. Did you learn this in Latam Guzz? Before you ran away to liberal, free thinking, progressive Europe? I only ask because your Malvinista buddies are claiming that they are abide to the letter of the law in all of their dealings so what is it to be Guzz. Morals or the law? Or do you just swing between the two concepts depending on which one suits you argument the best?
I never said we need no laws, but moral should go over law and not vice versa
But then you said and I quote:
“That is why I say we must let moral rule, not law.”
Terrorists let morals rule and ride roughshod over law. Vigilantes just let their emotions take over. I've heard of mobs burning down the houses of paediatricians because they got the word mixed up with peadophile. So much for letting morals overrule the law.
You say we need laws. More accurately you said “I never said we need no laws,” so what is it to be?
You could introduce a law that somebody else thinks is immoral and does something to undermine your law. How would you feel about that?
I don’t have a “side” per say, but in my eyes Pinochet should have answered for his crimes in Chile, Franco in Spain, Castro in Cuba.
You assertion and total conviction that the US wants Assange at all cost it totally contradicted by the McKinnon case. At the very highest level they have demanded him, yet no honey-trap, no rendition, no CIA induced cancer.
Remember Magrahi, the Lybian accused of the Lockerbie bomb. The CIA wanted him too. The Scottish courts let him walk. He got on a plane and went home. No kidnap, no accidental downing of the plane, no plutonium laced umbrella spike.
Why, when both these high profile cases show that the US chooses not to/can’t interfere in UK/EU judicial process, do you think that they would do so in a far less important case? It is just paranoia.
No! Only in your mind. You must unlearn what you have learned.”
My comment @26 was in answer to yours @22
FFF
Quite right. I think Sharia law would constitute a “moral law” system. Hum, stoning all the unfaithful women...there wouldn't be many left around here. How would that go down in Denmark Guzz?
Yoda
Well said, but I fear it is too late for him.
I don't think for a moment that a person like Correa has any regard for what is right and proper. I would hope however that what we in the UK believe to be the more responsible SA Nations of Brazil, Chile, Uruguay etc would see this for what it is and disassociate themselves from what is obvious and rather pathetic political posturing. Its up to them. Still want Ecuador out once this is all over.
As crime crime in his country, not good:
According to the INTERPOL data, for murder, the rate in 1999 was 25.92 per 100,000 population for Ecuador, 1.10 for Japan, and 5.51 for USA.
While rape in itself is not legal in Ecuador, corrective rape is common.
This man is a true South American socialist, whose only aim is to do whatever he wants to that empowers him.
Moral says one should not kill, just check every holy book on the planet. A moral that should include the governments. Stealing is wrong, we all agree. Yet the ones that steals the most are the ones who walks. Like the bankers. You see, that you choose to act unmorally does not change what is right and wrong.
Aug 22nd, 2012 - 05:23 pm
I am sorry Guzz but I don't speak gibberish.
All we here in the European Union have to do is to ban all imports of bananas, flowers and cultivated shrimp/prawns from Ecuador and their attitude will change very swiftly - maybe the US may care to do so also. There are plenty of countries able increase their banana exports - Colombia, Costa Rica, Panamá, Guatemala, Belize. Colombian flowers exporters could increase their production as could shrimp/prawn producers in Thailand and Indonesia.
So who has the upper hand? Ecuador - I don't think so! They are deluded!
Britain's threats against Ecuador now deemed an embarassment:
www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/stalemate-julian-assange-still-stuck-in-embassy-despite-receiving-asylum-from-ecuador/2012/08/17/f669619c-e85d-11e1-9739-eef99c5fb285_story.html
“'It was a big mistake,' said former British ambassador Oliver Miles. 'It puts the British government in the position of asking for something illegitimate.'”
According to the blue Brits, they offered to bend the law in order to save Ecuadors face :)
Makes perfect sense if you are a blue Brit, no wonder they play the quiet card :)
Working, isn't it!!!!
Yup, it does indeed. With you lot quiet, the risk of you messing up has decreased in a linear fashion...
Aug 22nd, 2012 - 07:23 pm
”Makes perfect sense if you are a blue Brit, no wonder they play the quiet card :)”
What is a Blue Brit? It can't be an insult because I know that you get very upset when people insult you so you'd never insult others. Would you?
Also. Why, in your opinion, do you thing the British diplomatic service is keeping quiet?
Don't worry I am not expecting an answer. You folk don't 'do' direct questions.
This has been a right royal feck up and no mistake but the lesson has been learned.
Ecuador cannot be trusted with confidential intergovernmental dispatches. They are not canny or even sly. They simply cannot be regarded as a country that can be trusted. Yes, you'd expect it from Wikileaks but a national diplomatic service? You couldn't make it up. And so Ecuador are stuck with Assange. We are now laying bets on when he cracks and hands himself in to the British authorities. I am putting a tenner on 6 months.
this guy at the embassy will suffer the same fate,
if he cant give ecuador what it wants, it will dump him,
still, you argies that support ecuador have no interest in justice do you.
so why should you care,
as long as you have a brit to bash, you are happy,
mm
I too, would like to know what a Blue Brit is. Is it anything like a Brazilian?
Forza Azzurri!
@40
You still on for 6 months if we clear the street outside?
It's not an insult, instead of dividing us by nations, I think it is more fair to do so by ideologies. A Blue Brit would be a Brit with views on the right side of the political spectra, with reservations for generalisation (still better than treating all Brits as one)
I think they are keeping quiet because they've said enough for 2 months at least already :)
Red - labour ed milliband
Yellow (gold) lib democrats
Green......
Assange won't be in tvere forever. Best face sa ing mood for ecuador.. Give Assange a dodgy pizza. He's taken to hospital. He's not been handed over in the true sense of the term. Britain gets him, Sweden gets him. Everyone is happy ... except Assange!!! World War III averted!
Aug 22nd, 2012 - 08:06 pm
It is all a bit non descript here these days. Everybody is somewhere around the middle of the road, more purple than blue or red. Extremists don't do well either to the left or the right, the last labour government could barely be distiguished from the tories apart from their easy going policy with other peoples money.
A lot depends on the issue being debated really. The Julian Assange issue has divided bloggers into starkly polarised camps. His supporters support him unconditionally while the other camp, where I belong, think that his actions simply do not add up. I don't blindly assume that he is innocent and I think that his argument that he might be extradited to the USA is lame. Too much doesn't add up.
I don't think he is gulity or innocent all I know is that he has an accusation to face and he is doing his level best not to face it and that Ecuador are aiding and abetting him for political reasons. In so doing they are meddling in the British and Swedish judicial system.
There are no reds in Europe, at least not represented on any governments. Every 4 so years they are free to choose between pest and colera :)
Aug 22nd, 2012 - 08:40 pm
”Every 4 so years they are free to choose between pest and colera :)”
Yes well that is politicians for you, they are the same the world over.
There are so many of them I am bound to have met one of them.
So what is so special about him/her/it?
Turnips are blue,
Mr Assange, lives in a zoo.
All that copy paste-ing just for me? I'm honoured :)
Pepe is my President, I thought you guys knew a lot about multi-culturalism, but you seem to be a bit confuded...
Which Pepe is that? Lobo or Le Pew?
But who is Pepe? Educate me.
Right. Now we have that cleared up. Why is 'Pepe' so special? What makes him so different from every other politician?
A man that does not rule for his own sake :)
Right you are then. Who am I to argue if he makes you happy?
Why don't you live in Uruguay Guzz?
Not so. Marco Albuja's statement suggests a double standard as Ecuador doesn't want Assange extradited to the United States at all, irrespective of any sentencing guarantee.
“Ecuadorian government calls for renewed dialogue with UK over Assange case after no contact for a week.”
No dialogue, no free passage out of UK, they wanted him, they got him.
For you; if you haven’t read it yet......
(And for all those Turnips that don’t know who Pepe is.)
www.monocle.com/monocolumn/2012/08/09/south-americas-unsung-political-hero/
PS:
He is my President too when I’m in Valizas…………….
It's because they are fanatics. As Churchill once famously said, 'a fanatic is one who can't change his mind, and on't change the subject.'
You see BK, Guzz and the rest of the malvinistas fear the west. They fear, and are envious of, the stable and (relatively) incorruptible political systems we have in place.
Shakespeare said, 'In time we hate that which we often fear.'
Or as Yoda said, 'Fear leads to anger, Anger leads to hate, Hate leads to suffering.'
This is why they hate the USA and UK, because they are afraid of us.
You hit the nail, we are terrified, especially of you...
Now that you unmasked us, I think I'll go and shiver in fear :)
If you love South America so much, why do you hide in Europe?
And yes, some South American countries are both afraid and envious of Europe and the USA.
Here's just one example. Argentina are frightened of 1,200 UK Armed Forces stationed on the Falkland Islands. They are afraid of HMS Dauntless, which they described as the Death Star.
This is why the Argentine government hate the British. Fear, jealousy of what the British have, and because they know they are impotent to do anything about it.
As for Ecuador, someone should tell Correa that when you are up to your neck in excrement it is advisible to stop digging.
“big boy” :)
That could change if they showed some consistency in their values (like arresting Tony Blair, or investigating the Pinochet affair), but of course they will not because as a society they have a complete inability for self-introspection when something nasty they don't like to admit to the world may be the result.
Troll (#)Aug 25th, 2012 - 02:18 amReport abuse
The UK has an atrocious human rights record, so one can promptly disregard whatever their government says.
That would be the 30,000 people we gave a one trip in helicopters over the channel then would it? Look to your own impecable human rights record, before you make such a comtemptuosly stupid comment like your last one.
It's all Argentina's fault Pinochet wasn't extradited. Because if Argentina hadn't invaded in 1982, the Brits wouldn't have been beholden to the old scumbag.
How am I doing here, TTT? I bought this book on LatAm Gringophobic Analysis. I think I'm getting the hang of it, but fear I may be applying it in the wrong situation.
In Uruguay it's called “10 steps out of misery”...
Perfectly explains the total dearth of self-criticism of this race, andhow they all come here and really believe they are less hypocritical and more morally righteous than the rest of the world. It's an insidious residue of cultural supremacism from the Victorian age, which of course today the rest of the world laughs at, since there is nothing actually concrete that makes anglo-saxons less corrupt, richer, or have a monopoly on human rights.
Another item that's not selling well is Maximo Kirchner's album of unattributed Ricky Martin covers “Livin' La Viveza Criolla”. It's extremely popular, but it's only his Mum who's bought any copies. The criollos just steal it off the torrents.
Maximo's next album is called “That's not what I meant, cabrones!”
Cabrones??? hahahahahaha. I'll let other argies explain why Maximo saying this would be funny.
As I've said before, yes latins can be corrupt, so they download on the left. But as I said, anglos are pervs, which is why the new book “What happens in Vegas, goes viral on the internet: why you should never drop your pants there” is a fascinating read. Hopefully everyone will read it, would be unfortunate if any major representative of a nation was caught off-guard and brought humilliation to his/her nation.
Heavens no, it's all to the good. The Murdoch Sun has now renamed itself “willyleaks” and claimed immunity from any prosecution, ever.
@75 So you should. It might be the only intelligent thing you ever do!
@77 Could you not just be “critical”? Then we could turn off your life support.
@79 I thought it was because you couldn't get the qualifications you want where you come from? Surely you could have got qualifications in robbery, torture, murder, terrorism where you come from?
@80 Nowhere as bad as argieland's. Current research is that you have murdered tens of millions of Amerindians. Then, when you “ran out of” Amerindians, you started on your own. How many did YOU “disappear”, TiT? But you were not alone, were you? All over South America, Amerindians were being exterminated. Proud, are you? Just think of all that blood and all those bones you are walking on.
@87 How fortunate you are to live on a continent so rife with corruption, poverty, venality and with no idea of what the phrase “human rights” actually means. For example, your actions toward the Falkland Islanders are a clear breach of their human rights. Not to mention the breaches of the UN Charter. Do you qualify as “law-abiding”? Or only as “latino law-abiding”?
If you want to go back to the 180os and the indians, then why stop there.
You have bout 1200 years more history and let's face it, just in the year 1642 more human rights violations where likely carried in the UK than in all of Argentina's history. And you have 1199 years left to analyze, including that bastion of Human rights era, the Middle Ages.
So, about comparing our human rights records as nations, you were saying...
There are also a couple of issues with the extradition of Tony Blair :
- nobody actually wants him
- he's not been charged by anybody with anything anyway
- he's (probably) only guilty of a catastrophic error of judgement and lying. We need to be careful of establishing a precedent which would deprive us of all our leaders at once, except maybe Mandela, the Dalai Lama, and Aung San Suu Kyi.
Maybe something of a disappearing nature could be worked out with Argentina? Or perhaps an inflatable berth could be arranged in the Messiah wing of the Ecuadorean Embassy.
Nice work in choosing the most self serving date possible, though. But I am rather surprised that your cultural heritage doesn't extend past 1816, whereas ours goes back to the Ark. I thought we were all the same species.
How convenient. Let's start talking about human rights from any time after the 1980's so Argentina's record isn't put under the spot light.
Your government in the 70's and 80's are responsible for far worse atrocities than anything Tony Blair is purported to have done, and the release of Pinochet.
Let's face it. Ecuador is holding Barankov, and true political prisoner, in the maximum security prison, and refuses to allow him visitors. If he is extradited he will face the death penalty.
Assange lost his appeal for extradition because he could produce NO evidence of this alleged conspiracy. He is being sent to Sweden. Sweden with one of the best human rights records in the world. Sweden, the country that protected wikileaks from the USA.
Assange is wanted for questioning on a serious charge. He has already committed a crime by breaking his bail conditions.
Ecuador shouldn't even be involved.
Assange will end up in Sweden eventually. He will not be extradited to the USA, and he will be exposed as a liar. Assanges own hubris will bring down wikileaks with him, and all because he wasn't man enough to face these serious accusations.
To misquote Dr House, I see you're still not familiar with the practice of sarcasm.
Dark and sinister, how rude of you :)
And to back up their already non-existent argument they seek to talk about British history whilst ignoring their own catastrophic human rights failures.
It's just another example of why SA is still stuck in the gutter with that level of thinking.
You really couldn't make it up, its too funny to take seriously....
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