The Interpol has rejected Ecuador’s request to issue a red alert against former President Rafael Correa due to no valid evidence to implicate him in the alleged kidnapping of the former opposition lawmaker Fernando Balda, teleSUR journalist Orlando Pérez said in a tweet Sunday.
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“Urgent: Interpol has rejected the order of the Ecuadorean Government of International Red alert and order of imprisonment for the former president @MashiRafael, considering that there is no valid evidence for that and because it is a fact mainly political. Developing news,” Perez tweeted.
Metro Ecuador newspaper said it confirmed the news with Balda’s lawyers who told the outlet that the reasons were still unknown and it is expected that an official announcement will be issued by the Verification Committee of Interpol.
However, later in the day, Ecuador's national police issued a statement through their twitter account saying Interpol's office in Quito under has "so far not received any messages, through the official communication system of Interpol I 24/7, on the request for red notification of former President Rafael Correa."
The Verification Committee of Interpol has been carrying out a review of Ecuador’s controversial request with an Oct. 23 deadline for issuing the decision on it.
In July an Ecuadorean judge requested that Interpol issue a red notice for the imprisonment and extradition of the former president in relation to the case of an alleged kidnapping of the former opposition legislator.
Last month Judge Daniella Camacho, who is overseeing the case against Correa, suspended the pretrial and evaluation hearing scheduled for Tuesday where General Attorney Paul Perez was supposed to present the evidence against the accused in the Balda case.
The hearing was postponed due to technical errors in the general attorney’s case files.
According to Correa’s Ecuadorean lawyer, Caupolican Ochoa, there is no evidence against Correa. “The general attorney can't take this to trial,” Ochoa told the press. Correa responded via Twitter asking if maybe the national court feared the presence of international observers.
“The hearing continues Friday afternoon and the international observers leave Friday morning. I think it is clear what we are facing, worse still with the shameful behavior of the general attorney,” Correa said last month.