Ecuadorean journalist pleads asylum case in Miami

* Emilio Palacio claims persecution by Ecuadorean president

* Two other journalists facing libel charges in Ecuador

By David Adams

MIAMI, Feb 8 (Reuters) - An Ecuadorean newspaper columnist sentenced to jail and ordered to pay millions of dollars in damages for criticizing President Rafael Correa pleaded his case for asylum with U.S. immigration officials on Wednesday, claiming he is a victim of political persecution.

Emilio Palacio, 58, fled to Miami in August after the government won a criminal libel suit against him and three owners at El Universo newspaper over an op-ed criticizing the president's handling of a 2010 police revolt.

A court sentenced Palacio and the owners to three years in prison and ordered payment of $40 million in damages. The case has become a symbol of deteriorating press freedom in Ecuador where Correa faces mounting criticism that he uses courts to muzzle the media, say media rights groups.

"This is a quintessential political persecution case," said Palacio's lawyer, Sandra Grossman. "The government is waging a war on journalists."

The socialist president who took office in January 2007 promising a "citizens' revolution," has frequently dueled with opposition media and accused journalists of spreading lies to undermine his government on behalf of his political opponents.

Correa argues media outlets in Ecuador, especially newspapers, are controlled by a handful of families who have ties with opposition politicians and have vested interests in other sectors of the economy, including banking.

In the latest libel case against journalists in Ecuador, a civil court judge on Monday sentenced Juan Carlos Calderon and Christian Zurita to pay $1 million each for defaming the president in a book about illegal government contracts.

In May, the Correa government won voter approval for a referendum including restrictions on media ownership and the creation of a media watchdog to regulate content.

Correa, a left-leaning, U.S.-educated economist, "brooks no dissent from the news media and, in less than five years, has turned Ecuador into one of the hemisphere's most restrictive nations for the press," according to a special report published in September by the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

CAMPAIGN OF HARASSMENT

Palacio fled Ecuador claiming he was the target of a campaign of harassment and filed an application for asylum in the United States on Jan. 11. He now lives in Miami with his wife and two children.

His February 2011 opinion column titled "No To Lies" repeatedly referred to the president as "the Dictator" and berated Correa's actions during a bloody police revolt in 2010.

Palacio alleged that Correa bore responsibility for troops who opened fire "without warning on a hospital full of civilians and innocent people." Correa, who had to seek refuge in a hospital during the revolt and was later rescued by Ecuadorean soldiers, denies ordering troops to fire.

Correa responded in March 2011 with a libel suit and a judge issued the sentence against Palacio and El Universo in July. The Guayaquil-based daily is appealing the sentence.

In his U.S. asylum application, Palacio argued that he was being punished in Ecuador "for expressing legitimate opinions and subjective interpretations of factual events."

"This was not a news report it, was the expression of his opinion," said Grossman. "Subjective opinions cannot be criminalized."

Grossman alleged that the sentence was made by a provisional judge who was appointed at the last minute after the original judge in the case was removed. The 156-page sentence was issued barely 24 hours after a five-hour hearing.

"All the court hearings and judicial rulings have been marred by judicial irregularities. It's basically a show trial," she said, alleging forensic evidence showed that the court's decision was not written by the judge.

"Mine is the first case of a journalist seeking asylum in this country," Palacio told Reuters before his hearing. "But after me others will come. Unfortunately in Ecuador today any journalist who wants to tell the truth will end up this way."

The book at the center of Monday's ruling in Ecuador, titled "Big Brother," alleges that Correa was aware that his older brother, Fabricio Correa, was illegally awarded public contracts worth $170 million. Correa denied he knew about the deals and he ordered the contracts be cancelled.

The authors said they planned to appeal the verdict. "The sum is out of proportion, is absurd and irrational ... This is the way in which they are punishing the work of journalists," Calderon told local media.

A final appeals court hearing in the libel case against El Universo and its owners is due to be held on Friday.

A decision on Palacio's asylum request is not likely for at least a couple of weeks, said Grossman. (Additional reporting by Eduardo Garcia in Quito; editing by Mohammad Zargham)