Washington Post: Correa may issue Belarusian police officer for friendship

The final decision on extradition of Aliaksandr Barankov from Ecuador will take the new friend of Lukashenko.

In granting asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange last week, Ecuador’s foreign minister described a generous national policy of accepting political refugees. But that generosity may have its limits.

Aliaksandr Barankov, a former financial crimes investigator from Belarus, is in imminent danger of losing that status and being sent home, where he says he fears he will be killed because he has denounced corruption at the highest levels of government.

Barankov, 30, faces an Ecuadorean judge’s ruling as early as Tuesday on an extradition request from Belarus, where prosecutors accuse him of fraud and extortion. Barankov contends he uncovered a petroleum-smuggling ring involving senior officials of President Alexander Lukashenko’s government, including relatives of the leader.

He calls the criminal charges against him bogus, and is backed by rights activists in the former Soviet bloc nation, which Lukashenko has ruled since 1994. His government has been condemned for fixing elections, repressing opposition groups and independent news media, and jailing dissidents. Lukashenko has kept about 80 percent of industry in state hands and earned the nickname in the West of “Europe’s last dictator.”

“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, the National Court of Justice, denied it in October 2011, finding that the evidence of Barankov’s alleged crimes was inadequate.

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.”

An official at the National Court of Justice said that Ramirez could rule as early as Tuesday 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.