Belarus dissident fighting extradition by Ecuador

[Bacchus4.0]

http://news.yahoo.com/belarus-dissident-fighting-extradition-ecuador-055731214.html

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — 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."

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 as early as Tuesday, less than a week after Ecuador granted political asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, painting itself a proud haven for the politically persecuted.

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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 defense cooperation agreement was also signed. Under Correa, Ecuador has been deepening commercial and political ties with U.S. rivals including Iran, Russia and China.

[naaman fletcher]

1. hmm,

It's almost as if the government of Ecuador is corrupt and only mouths talk of freedom and democracy. Oh wait, Ecuador is leftist. Therefore this story is simply a creation of the mainstream media.

[joshcryer]

6. I'm looking for the Lukashenko praising posts.

Haven't seen 'em yet but I bet they come.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Appropriate response already posted in LBN:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014201207#post1

[Bacchus4.0]

4. nope, just more non-sense

PP doesn't even mention the freedom of the press argument that Correa and Assange are using. Would that not apply to the Belarus case? A written guarantee from the Belarusian government on no death penalty. wonderful. what about being assassinated? That's this guy's worry.

of course Barankov is part of the trade agreement deal. note that US FTAs are bad according to PP, but when other nations sign FTAs with other countries beside the US, they are good.

Latin American countries extradite criminals to the US all the time and the US has the death penalty.

Quito can indeed be cold at night. the elevation is over 8000 ft.
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Prison and Detention Center Conditions

Conditions in prisons and detention centers generally were poor and tended to be worse in the tropical coastal areas than in the temperate highlands. In 2010 then minister of justice Jose Serrano stated that existing facilities were overcrowded by 93 percent.

Overcrowding continued to be a problem in most prison facilities. As of December the National Agency for Social Rehabilitation (DNRS) reported that 43 facilities held 16,587 prisoners, compared with 11,800 the previous year. Pretrial detainees were held with convicted prisoners. The government reported that there were 1,372 juvenile prisoners but did not report on the number of female prisoners.

http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/topic,4565c225e,4565c25f16d,4fc75aa4c,0,,ANNUALREPORT,ECU.html

and a briefly: The main human rights abuses were use of excessive force by public security forces, restrictions on freedom of speech and press, and official corruption. President Correa and his administration continued verbal and legal attacks against the media and increasingly used legal mechanisms such as libel laws to suppress freedom of expression. Corruption was endemic, especially in the judicial sector, and officials engaged in corrupt practices with impunity.


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PP makes the claim that the US has some of the most overcrowded prisons in the world and offers no evidence, after criticizing the article for not providing any evidence about Ecuador.

this constitutes an appropriate response for you? seems PP was almost completely wrong.

[joshcryer]

5. I don't know how PP has the time to write those screeds.

Barankov is part of the trade deal like the alleged Lockerbie bomber was part of the trade deal the UK made with Libya. This sort of thing is uncontroversial and if it were a western country people would be saying "IT'S A CONSPIRACY." I don't know what the fuck has happened to critical thinking, I swear.

PP seems to want the deal to be spun as though Ecuador was just trying to make sure that the guy wasn't going to be executed! No! They revoked his asylum!

[struggle4progress]

3. Week after Assange gets asylum, ex-Belarus financial crime prober could lose his in Ecuador (WaPo)

... Belarus continued to press for his extradition, but Judge Carlos Ramirez of Ecuador’s highest court, the National Court of Justice, 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 neighborhood 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 defense cooperation agreement was also signed. Under Correa, Ecuador has been deepening commercial and political ties with U.S. rivals including Iran, Russia and China.

“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” ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/ex-belarus-financial-crime-prober-fights-extradition-by-ecuador-week-after-assange-asylum/2012/08/20/b9fcfb88-eb37-11e1-866f-60a00f604425_story.html


Earlier DU thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101638916