The president of Ecuador, Lenín Moreno, refuses to surrender a suspect to the United States. The American man tried to take over half of Facebook from Mark Zuckerberg with a fake letter.

Moreno writes in a letter held by Reuters news agency that the suspect is not extradited for “humanitarian reasons”.

The suspect filed a lawsuit against Facebook in 2010. He said that Zuckerberg had signed a contract in which half of Facebook was handed over to him. A judge finally concluded that the deal was not real, after which another judge dismissed the man’s case.

In 2012, the man was sued by Facebook for fraud. The case should have started in 2015, but the suspect removed his ankle strap and disappeared together with his wife, children and dog.

Meanwhile, the American has turned up in Ecuador, a country that more often refuses extradition requests from the United States. There he was arrested and imprisoned. He has requested asylum.