Eighteen people were declared as co-authors of the crime of bribery. Pamela Martínez and Laura Terán received a reduction of the penalty for cooperation.
After analyzing the doctrinal part of the Bribes 2012-2016 case, the Court of Judgment indicated that the materiality of the infraction does exist and found the ex-president Rafael Correa and ex-vice president Jorge Glas guilty as mediated perpetrators of the aggravated bribery crime. Both were sentenced, in the first instance, to 8 years in prison and would lose their political rights for 25 years.
The Court of the National Court of Justice, made up of judges Iván León (rapporteur), Marco Rodríguez and Iván Saquicela, accepted the position of the Prosecutor’s Office, pointing out that the existence of a corruption structure was demonstrated.
In reading their analysis, the magistrates considered that both leaders knew of the “undue contributions” to finance their political movement in exchange for awarding state contracts to businessmen.
Regarding Rafael Correa, the judge-rapporteur said: “so much money cannot be easily hidden, much less if it was handled by his adviser Pamela Martínez”, so the Court insisted on the theory that the ex-president did know about the management of resources.
The Court sentenced an additional 18 to eight years’ imprisonment. Among them: Alexis Mera, María de los Ángeles Duarte, Walter Solís, Vinicio Alvarado and Viviana Bonilla.
Mera was sentenced as a direct co-author, because as a public official he had broad decision-making power and was a direct beneficiary of at least $ 365,000 for legal services.
In relation to former presidential adviser Pamela Martínez and her former assistant Laura Terán, the judges ordered the reduction of sentences for having cooperated in this case. Martínez received a 38-month sentence and Terán a 19-month sentence. The latter was considered an accessory.
Although, throughout the process, there were 21 defendants, including businessmen, at the end of the trial stage it was determined that the citizen Yamil Massuh was innocent. Situation that was warned by the Court in its resolution and for which only 20 people were sentenced. Even employers were convicted as direct perpetrators of the crime of aggravated active bribery.
The diligence was carried out in the three floors of the National Court of Justice, in Quito, as a biosecurity measure in the face of the health emergency that the country is experiencing due to the coronavirus.
Due to competition issues, at the beginning of the announcement of the resolution, the evidence presented by the defense of ex-vice president Jorge Glas, who attached as evidence the report of the National Electoral Council on the expenses of the Alianza PAIS movement for his electoral campaign, was declared irrelevant.
As soon as the Court’s resolution was known, Correa, who resides in Belgium, published on his Twitter account that this was already expected and that the only thing that worries him is his colleagues.
Fausto Jarrín, the ex-president’s lawyer, questioned the decision and stated that the entire process was “a fraud.”
Source: El Universo, Ecuavisa, Expreso, Fiscalía, Twitter, social networks
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