The president of Ecuador's National Justice Court on Friday said he had signed an extradition request for the country's ex-President Rafael Correa, who lives in Belgium, seeking his return to Ecuador to serve an eight-year jail term for bribery.
An Ecuadorian court sentenced Correa to eight years in prison in 2020, accusing him - along with other officials - of being behind wrongful charges to contractors in a move to finance electoral campaigns for his political movement between 2012 and 2016.
Court president Ivan Saquicela signed an order requesting Correa's extradition based on an extradition agreement in force between Ecuador and Belgium and other international agreements, he told Reuters in a telephone interview.
"This is the first time that extradition has been requested and, accordingly, it is strictly in line with the law," Saquicela told Reuters, dismissing claims by Correa that extradition requests had been made previously.
The extradition request will next move to Ecuador's foreign ministry, who must formally ask Belgium to extradite Correa.
Correa, who led Ecuador from 2007 to 2017 and has lived in Belgium since he left power, has denied the accusations, describing the case against him as one of political persecution led by his opponents.
Correa dismissed the extradition request as "another scrap of paper" and called Saquicela a clown in a series of Twitter messages.
Correa has requested political asylum from Belgium which, according to the former president's press team, was accepted by the government in Brussels.
"On April 19, 2022, the federal government of Belgium granted political asylum to the economist Rafael Correa Delgado, Ecuador's former President, thus recognizing the political persecution against him," the team said in a statement.
Neither Ecuador's nor Belgium's foreign ministries responded to requests for comment. A spokesperson of Belgium's Commissioner for refugees declined to comment.
(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia in Quito; Additional reporting by Belen Carreno and Inti Landauro in Madrid, and Robin Emmott in Brussels; Writing by Oliver Griffin, Editing by William Maclean)
