Ecuadorian judge orders release of former vice-president Jorge Glas

Quito, November 28 (RHC)-- Ecuador's former vice president, Jorge Glas, will be able to regain his freedom after a judge issued a precautionary measure for that purpose.  Magistrate Emerson Curipallo, of the Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas Criminal Unit, issued a release order in favor of the former vice-president, who must report once a week in Guayaquil and will be prohibited from leaving the country.

Glas, who has been behind bars for five years, is considered a victim of the judicialization of politics and was waiting for the definition of the date of a hearing to decide his release, but this new measure allows him to await the final ruling out of prison.

In early November, the National Court of Justice dismissed the accusation against the former vice-governor and six others involved in alleged irregularities in contracts for the extraction of oil in the Singue field during the government of Rafael Correa (2007-2017).

With that ruling, the defense requested the unification of sentences to access pre-release after serving time for alleged crimes of illicit association in the Odebrecht case and for aggravated bribery in the case known as Bribes, for which Correa was also convicted in absentia.

Glas was denied two habeas corpus, one of which allowed him to leave jail for several days this year, but the measure was annulled due to political and media pressure.  His defense, as well as jurists and human rights activists agree that there is no evidence to prove any of the crimes for which he was indicted.

Glas is considered the truest symbol of "lawfare" in Ecuador, where the persecution unleashed by the government of Lenín Moreno against followers of the ideas of Correa, who presided over the country in the so-called "Decade of Victory," forced many of them to go into exile outside the country.