Ecuadorian court sentences former Vice President Glas to 13 years in prison.
Glas was accused of embezzlement and misappropriation of funds; the controversial process benefits the current president, Daniel Noboa, according to Correa supporters.
247 - A court of the National Court of Justice of Ecuador sentenced former Vice President Jorge Glas to 13 years in prison. The sentence is a first-instance ruling and can be appealed, according to the Xinhua news agency.
The court, composed of judges Mercedes Caicedo, Marco Rodríguez, and Javier de la Cadena, declared both Glas and Carlos Bernal, a former secretary, guilty. Both received the maximum sentence.
Glas was accused of embezzlement and misappropriation of funds raised for the reconstruction of Manabí province after a devastating earthquake in 2016.
Last March, the Attorney General's Office of Ecuador formally filed charges against Glas and eight other people on suspicion of "misuse of public funds for the benefit of third parties," who were allegedly "contractors and supervisors of contracts signed in the context of the emergency."
Glas attended the hearings in person and denied the accusations, stating that he never managed the funds allocated to the reconstruction process.
Pursuit - O Former Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa gave statements to RT on Monday regarding the controversial case of the former vice president of the South American country. Correa, a political ally of Glas, considers the former vice president a victim of judicial persecution — or lawfare — promoted by the Ecuadorian far-right, and intensified by the current ruler, Daniel Noboa.
Remember - The former vice president was transferred to the La Roca maximum security prison, on the outskirts of Guayaquil, after being arrested in early April 2024 during the Ecuadorian police raid on the Mexican Embassy in Quito, where he was taking refuge under diplomatic protection as a political asylum.
