Ecuador's Supreme Court has denied an extradition request from Belarus over dissident blogger and former soldier Alexander Barankov, wanted by Minsk for alleged fraud.
The denial on Tuesday came in the wake of a diplomatic row with Britain over Quito's offer of asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and as Ecuador has been criticized by rights groups over its treatment of its own local media.
The court said it was unable to approve the extradition request for Barankov because he had been declared a refugee by the foreign ministry.
Barankov, 30, a former army captain, fled to Ecuador in 2009 after being charged with fraud, allegations he says were trumped up after he blogged about widespread corruption linked to people close to Belarus' authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, often referred to as "Europe's last dictator."
Ecuador granted him asylum in 2010 after he argued that he faced the death penalty for treason in Belarus, but imprisoned him for 52 days later that year after an extradition request from Minsk that was eventually rejected.
The European Union and the United States have accused Belarus of detaining dissidents and committing other human rights abuses, and tightened sanctions in the wake of a disputed election in December 2010 that handed another term to Lukashenko, in power since 1994.
The Barankov case re-emerged following a visit by Lukashenko to Ecuador in June, when he signed several military and other accords with President Rafael Correa, a leftist leader who has moved to strengthen ties with US foes.
Ecuador granted asylum to Assange after he exhausted all appeals against extradition from Britain to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning on sexual assault allegations.
Assange fears Sweden intends to hand him over to the United States, where he could face charges related to WikiLeaks's release of a trove of US classified military reports and embassy cables.
Rights groups and press freedom organizations have meanwhile roundly criticized Correa for targeting opposition media with libel suits, accusing Ecuador of having one of the worst records on press freedom in Latin America.
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