Ecuador: Court Approves Preventive Detention for Rafael Correa

The National Justice Court of Ecuador has approved preventive detention for former Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, accused of involvement in a failed kidnapping attempt.

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The Chief Prosecutor's office requested on Tuesday the "preventive detention" of Correa, currently residing in Belgium, and ordered Interpol to be notified for his capture and extradition.

The court is accusing the former president, who led a popular progressive political movement called the 'Citizens' Revolution' in Ecuador for a decade, of "illicit association" and the kidnapping of opposition lawmaker Fernando Balda in 2012.

Balda says five people tried to kidnap him in Bogota in 2012, but the Colombian police stopped the attempt. Evidence supporting the allegations has yet to be made public.

Correa tweeted that the chief prosecutor has breached the National Assembly mandate by requesting preventive detention without "providing a single piece of evidence."

"How much success will this farce have at the international level?" Correa said. "Don't worry, everything is a matter of time. We will overcome!"

Balda, a former lawmaker with the right-wing opposition Patriotic Society party, was charged with conspiring to overthrow Correa's government as part of the failed September 2010 coup, which was led mainly by dissident police forces. However, he was in Colombia at the time of the charges and thus his prosecution was put on hold.

In October 2012, Balda was deported from Colombia because he had been in the country illegally.

Early the following year, he was sentenced to one year in prison for threatening state security as well as giving false information which affected the honor of the state.