Ecuador’s Ex-President Correa Sentenced to Eight Years in Prison for Corruption

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Rafael Correa, Ecuador‘s former left-wing president, and his former vice-president, Jorge Glas, were each sentenced yesterday to eight years in prison.

They are also forbidden from holding political office for 25 years. The lower court found them guilty of corruption and sentenced them in the so-called 2012-2016 Briberies (Sobornos) case.

The defendants were found guilty of inciting the crime of passive bribery. According to the judges, the bribery case involves a corruption network set up under the Correa government and involving national and international companies such as the Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht.

In addition to Correa and Glas, 18 other people were convicted, including Ministers and deputies from Correa’s administration. In return for being awarded public tenders, a number of companies are said to have paid money to the then ruling party Alianza País (AP). The AP allegedly used these funds illegally for election campaigns between 2012 and 2016.

However, the Electoral Commission had announced after a review that no irregularities had been detected.

The main witness for the prosecution is Correa’s former employee Pamela Martínez. A diary is said to prove the flow of funds. Martínez had agreed to cooperate with the Prosecutor’s Office expecting a reduction in her sentence. However, according to the defense, this diary is forged and is therefore insufficient evidence.

Correa himself suspects that this case was designed to prevent him from returning to Ecuador and participating in next year’s presidential elections.

He has been living in Belgium since 2017 and applied for asylum there in 2018, claiming that he would face political persecution. Only a few days ago, Correa had reiterated his intention to return to Ecuador at the end of the year in order to register for the legislative and presidential elections in February 2021.

This ruling came in the midst of a dramatic health crisis: According to official figures, there have already been 191 deaths and 3,747 confirmed infections caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.

However, the reality on the streets, particularly in Guayaquil, raises suspicions about much higher figures.

Attorney Eduardo Franco Loor has his doubts about the evidence in the case: “There is no evidence against ex-President Correa because he acted according to the law in his capacity as constitutional President of the Republic”.

According to Loor, the incumbent government has falsified a number of pieces of evidence, which are irrelevant and should be rejected by the judges.

Jorge Glas had been re-elected as vice president with President Lenín Moreno in May 2017, but in December 2017 he was sentenced to six years in prison in a highly controversial trial. He is being held in the high-security prison of Latacunga. Earlier this year, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH) called on the government to better protect Glas and to reconsider detention terms.