Updated on
Summary Judge Carlos Ramirez found the political refugee status granted Aliaksandr Barankov to be sound.
A high court judge in Ecuador has rejected the extradition request for a former financial crimes investigator from Belarus who has been jailed since June and ordered him freed immediately.A court official notified The Associated Press of the judges order. The official was not authorized to be identified by name.Barankovs case drew attention after Ecuador granted political asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange earlier this month.The 30-year-old Barankov had argued he could be killed if sent back to his former Soviet bloc homeland, whose president, Alexander Lukashenko, has been nicknamed Europes last dictator.Barankov says he fled Belarus after unearthing high-level corruption involving relatives of Lukashenko.
