In Ecuador, a dissident fights extradition [View all]
Source: Associated Press
QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — 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 election fraud, represses opposition groups and independent news media, and jails 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."
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