The Ecuadorian court made its decision this Friday preventive prison against Jorge Glas, who was vice-president under the government of Rafael Correa (2007-2017), accused of embezzlement and imprisoned Embassy of Mexico in Quito while awaiting processing of an asylum request.

Judge Felipe Cordova accepted the request from state Attorney General Diana Salazar and issued a preventive detention order against Glas and another defendant in the same case, Carlos B., and he ordered Pablo O to be banned from leaving the country.

“The judge accepts the request – legally justified – from the prosecutor’s office and orders the preventive detention of Jorge G. and Carlos B., while Pablo O. is ordered ban on leaving the country and periodic presentation“, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement broadcast through his network X account.

The three have been linked by prosecutors in a case being investigated alleged crime of embezzlement (theft of public funds) during the recovery process in the coastal province of Manabi, which was hit by a powerful magnitude 7.8 earthquake in April 2016.

According to the structure itself, during the meeting the prosecutor’s office presented 85 elements of a guilty verdict (evidence) against the defendants.

The hearing was scheduled on the fourth attempt: “7 months after prosecutors requested a date and time to file charges, and more than a month after Judge Luis Rivera asked the Assembly to ‘permit'” bring to justice former Vice President Jorge G.“he added.

In the so-called “Reconstruction” case, an investigation by the prosecutor’s office established the alleged existence misuse of public money for the benefit of third parties individuals and legal entities who were contractors and controllers of contracts concluded as part of the emergency situation in connection with the earthquake of April 16, 2016.

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Glas, who was also vice president of the governments of Rafael Correa (2007–2017) and Lenin Moreno (2017–2021), He entered the Mexican embassy on December 17.in Quito – although no jail sentence was issued against him, according to prosecutors – and three days later he asked for diplomatic asylum in the Aztec country.

This former vice president He spent five years and four months in prison. being sentenced to eight years in prison in one case for bribery and to six years in another case for illegal involvement in the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht bribery scandal.

Glass said that I will strive to reverse this matter after Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court invalidated the tests used by Odebrecht, which affected politicians in that country (including President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva) and others in the region.

Last December, Sonya Vera from Glas’s international defense team believed that her client would be summoned to court in the Reconstruction case, despite the fact that he was not in control of resources, but rather he was a member of the commission that “simply prioritized projects.”

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Vera asked why he was not brought to justice in this case when he was in prison.

“For the past six years, we have condemned the bloody legal and political persecution of my client,” Vera said, noting that the situation allegedly escalated after the Correist Civil Revolution movement demanded a political trial in parliament against prosecutor Diana. Salazar, accused of allegedly “breach of official duties”. (EFE)