On 18 June 2018, Ecuador's highest court ordered the former President be included in an investigation into a 2012 botched kidnapping of opposition lawmaker Fernando Balda. After Correa ignored judicial orders and did not assist with the investigation, an Ecuadorian judge ordered for his arrest on 3 July 2018. The judge alerted Interpol because Correa was living in Belgium at the time with his wife, who was a Belgian native. Correa denied the allegations surrounding the kidnapping. In July 2018 Interpol rejected an Ecuador-issued arrest warrant and called it "obviously a political matter.""Ecuador's Rafael Correa requests asylum in Belgium: report", DW.com, 8 November 2018. Retrieved 6 December 2019.
