An Ecuadorian court has sentenced former President Abdalla Bucaram and his son Jacobo to nine years and four months in prison for crimes related to the illegal sale of COVID-19 tests and other medical supplies in 2020, Spanish news agency EFE reported, quoted by BTA.
In addition to Bucaram and his son, who were convicted as collaborators, a former agent of the Quito Transportation Agency (AMT), identified as Leandro Berrones, was also sentenced to 13 years and four months in prison, while Israeli citizen Sheinman Oren received a sentence of two years and eight months after cooperating with authorities.
The judges accepted the theory of the prosecutor in the case, who last May requested a conviction sentence against the four, after accusing them of “collaborating between March and August 2020 with a criminal organization that received economic benefits“ from the sale of about 21,000 COVID-19 tests and other medical supplies.
The court ordered Bucaram and his son to pay a fine of approximately $9,640.
The last three times, magistrates declared the hearing unsuccessful because Bucaram was admitted to intensive care units on the days of the scheduled court hearings after undergoing emergency heart surgery.
According to his lawyers, he has not been able to recover from the operation.
The former president remains hospitalized in the northern part of Guayaquil, the country's most populous city, where he has been living since last week. The judges had ordered his arrest after his release from the hospital.
Yesterday, when the hospital authorized his discharge, the court was notified and connected via video link, under police surveillance, to inform it of the decision.
According to the prosecutor's investigation, two Israelis, Oren and another man, killed in 2020 in the “Litoral“ prison - the most populous and dangerous prison in the country, located in Guayaquil, were responsible for transporting the tests under the supervision of employees of the Transportation Agency from Quito to the former president's home, where he "also stored other medical supplies, such as masks and lancets for taking samples".
In addition, some of those involved posed as members of the diplomatic corps and the US Drug Enforcement Agency to facilitate their movement.
The tests were sold in several provinces of the country "without invoices and without paying state taxes", according to the prosecutor's office.
Two other employees of the Transportation Agency, who were part of the presidential guard, have already been convicted in this case and received reduced sentences after pleading guilty.
Former President Bucaram was in exile for two decades in Panama and returned to Ecuador in 2017 when the statute of limitations expired on corruption charges for which he was wanted by Ecuadorian authorities.