Ex-President Moreno sentenced to five years in prison for corruption
Ecuador's former head of state Lenín Moreno was found guilty of bribery by the Supreme Court. Nineteen other defendants, including a former Chinese ambassador, were also convicted.
Supreme Court in Quito finds Moreno guilty
Ecuador's Supreme Court has sentenced former president Lenín Moreno to five years in prison. According to Deutsche Welle, citing the Ecuadorian state prosecution, the court in the capital Quito found that Moreno was guilty of corruption.
At the heart of the case was the construction of the "Coca Codo Sinclair" hydroelectric power plant – the largest of its kind in Ecuador – by Chinese company Sinohydro. The prosecution accuses Moreno of accepting bribes during his time as vice president. Sinohydro is said to have paid a total of 76 million dollars (approximately 65 million euros) in bribes in connection with the construction project.
In addition to Moreno, 19 other defendants were found guilty, including a former Chinese ambassador. Moreno's wife and several relatives are said to have been sentenced to two and a half years in prison for aiding and abetting. According to the prosecution, the family is charged with receiving approximately one million dollars in bribes.
The sentence fell short of the prosecutors' request, who had demanded six and a half years. Given that Moreno is 73 years old and uses a wheelchair, the prison sentence could be converted to house arrest if the ruling becomes final. He announced an appeal and rejected the accusations as politically motivated: he had not accepted "a single cent" from Sinohydro.
Moreno was president of Ecuador from 2017 to 2021. Previously, he had served as vice president from 2007 to 2013 under left-leaning Rafael Correa before turning away from him politically. Correa, according to Moreno, had "promised to take revenge on me" – this is the real background to the proceedings. Correa himself was in turn sentenced to eight years in prison for corruption; the verdict was passed in absentia as he lives in exile in Belgium.
Source: Deutsche Welle