MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Ecuadorean court ratifies political refugee status for Belarus former investigator
A judge on Ecuador's highest court has thrown out an extradition request for a former police investigator from Belarus who has been jailed since June, ordering him to be freed immediately. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesReaders should note that this story has absolutely no relevance to the Assange case. I have no doubt Ecuador will try to equate the two to justify the Assange situation.
Aug 29th, 2012 - 07:03 am - Link - Report abuse 0@1
Aug 29th, 2012 - 07:12 am - Link - Report abuse 0Agree
Not the same in anyway!!!!!
Good news.
Aug 29th, 2012 - 10:18 am - Link - Report abuse 0I guess Ecuador havent got an arguement when they have double standards, if it wasnt for rapist and Ecuadors grand standing, this guy would be on a plane to belarus and nobody would even care.
Aug 29th, 2012 - 10:56 am - Link - Report abuse 0Ecuador had to stop being two-faced, in its attempt to save face.
At least Aliaksandr Barankov has a temporary reprieve while Assange remains in the news.
Aug 29th, 2012 - 11:23 am - Link - Report abuse 0I can picture it now. It's 2022 and a dishevelled marginally insane Assange stumbles from the embassy having lost the will to fight. He's immediately extradited to Sweden where the authorities ask him a couple of questions about the events of 2010 and then tell him he's free to go due to lack of evidence.
Aug 29th, 2012 - 11:40 am - Link - Report abuse 0When they let him go will he go strait from Sweden to Ecuador ?
Aug 29th, 2012 - 11:59 am - Link - Report abuse 0@6 the irony is too painful for thought, but the amusement factor would be hillarious :)
Aug 29th, 2012 - 12:00 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Correa could not lose face so he had to grant this individual asylum - a different category of asylum to the one granted to Assange.
Aug 29th, 2012 - 01:56 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@9: That's something of a rub isn't it (also the court granted the asylum, not Correa). For asylum status to stick, it has to be applicable to the “host” country and the pursuant one (especially when the applicant is in side of the pursuing country nestled in the host country's modest embassy). JA has “Diplomatic Asylum” which is not recognized by the UK wrt Ecuador “Political Asylum” is a different and more robust animal. IIRC, the former gives him the privilege to hold up in the embassy but the country in which the embassy sits has no obligation to let the holder travel through the country from the embassy and leave. Re: Barankov, the story does not mention if he has been or will be released from jail. If he is not, then the asylum granting is a joke. Of course granting “the case with the same respect for human rights that guided it in considering Mr Assange's asylum request” has my BS detectors going up. JA is there to stick a fork in the UK's eye (and one may reasonably hypothesize that any leaks in the hands of WL that reflect poorly on RC or Ecuador or even other ALBA states will be kept on the QT). RC has tried to curry favor with Lukashenko by jailing him. If the courts in Ecuador are not independent of RC, then this is just a cynical way to save face in light of bad press, doubly so if they keep him in jail.
Aug 29th, 2012 - 03:29 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“also the court granted the asylum, not Correa” - that's a good one! Correa controls the judiciary in his country and there is no doubt that the judge's decision has been made in order for Correa not to lose face - see @9 above.
Aug 29th, 2012 - 04:00 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@11 as per my last sentence, eh? Methinks it IS a face saving decision... Once again, the REAL proof of the pudding of RC accepting his political asylum will be how soon he gets out of jail (and if he stays out should Lukashenko visits again). I'm looking through the news and I don't see anything on his release yet.
Aug 29th, 2012 - 04:47 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Had Ecuador refused Barankov asylum, the Brits would've used it as an argument of lack of credibility, now they point their pointy fingers arguing saced faces.
Aug 29th, 2012 - 08:51 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Of the two alternatives, Ecuador chose the least bad one and shut some Brits up in the process, they just lost the Barankov card :)
Hmmm Correa had Barankov arrested at the specific request of Lukashenko. He was living freely until that request was received and there was every indication he would be sent to Belarus until the spotlight was focused on his plight. I saw an interview with his Ecuadorian wife and it was very revealing.
Aug 29th, 2012 - 09:12 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Barankov's situation being brought into the debate has probably saved his life so let's just be happy about that.
@ 10 GFace
Aug 29th, 2012 - 11:14 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“Re: Barankov, the story does not mention if he has been or will be released from jail.”
It does: “A judge on Ecuador's highest court ... ordering him to be freed immediately.”
14 ElaineB (#) I agree with your appraisal. Lukashenko is a highly unsavoury specimen and he has no respect for human rights. Barankov would have been “disappeared” if he had been sent back. When my wife went back to Poland she wanted to visit what had been her father's estates in what had been East Poland, and her family told her not to even attempt it as she might never get out again.
Aug 30th, 2012 - 03:36 am - Link - Report abuse 013 Guzz (#)
Aug 30th, 2012 - 04:50 am - Link - Report abuse 0Forced the issue to lose the barankov card :)
@13 Guzz
Aug 31st, 2012 - 04:27 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“Had Ecuador refused Barankov asylum, the Brits would've used it as an argument of lack of credibility”
Even whilst Ecuador was grandstanding on Assange, freedom Of the press, and human rights issues, Britain did NOT use this arguement.
Correa introduced the “Barankov card” themselves, as a political tool.
-first imprisoning him to please Belarus, then
-secondly, flip-flopping and granting Barankov “asylum” to try to add credibility to their Assange case, possibly annoying Belarus.
Now they have two politically-charged guests of the state, that they have to dance around in the spotlight. :-)
Someone please direct him to the british embassy, now wouldn't that set the cat amomgst the pigeons!
Sep 01st, 2012 - 06:45 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Good to see Ecuador protecting freedom of speech across the board, kinda expected this would be the result =)
Sep 04th, 2012 - 01:32 am - Link - Report abuse 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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