Judicial “plague” falls in Ecuador

QUITO (EFE).— Two judges and three former judges were arrested yesterday in Ecuador, within the framework of investigations into alleged organized crime, the State Attorney General’s Office reported.

The arrests were carried out within the framework of operations in eight provinces of the country: El Oro, Azuay, Manabí, Pichincha, Chimborazo, Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, Tungurahua and Guayas.

According to the Prosecutor’s Office, those investigated in the case are judges, secretaries, police officers, people who held public positions and lawyers in free practice.

Impunity

In the so-called “Plaga” case, the Prosecutor’s Office investigates the alleged crime of organized crime “in the framework of granting constitutional actions to persons deprived of their liberty (PPL) with sentences for different criminal infractions, allowing – in this way – to prevail impunity, through legal tricks and abuse of law,” he noted.

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In the province of Manabí, former judges Simón Oswaldo G. and Joffre Javier RR were arrested, while in the province of Santo Domingo De Los Tsáchilas, former judge Ángel L. was arrested. The latter is being prosecuted in the so-called Metastasis Case, which investigates a plot of judicial, police and prison corruption.

In Manabí, Gary Fabricio P., secretary of court and judicial units, was arrested, and outside a prison, in Guayas, Marco Patricio CC, a police officer on active duty.

The law enforcement forces carried out a raid on a prison in Quito, where evidence was found and citizen Lenin V. (already prosecuted in another case) was notified with a new arrest warrant.

In the raid on a property in the province of Chimborazo, Hugo Alexander LO was arrested, while in Pichincha the arrest warrant was executed against José T. Ch., a lawyer in free practice.

In Azuay, the detainee was Omar Israel J., lawyer and former official of the National Service for Comprehensive Attention to Adults Deprived of Liberty and Adolescent Offenders (SNAI), the body in charge of prison control.

Also a former SNAI official, José Alfredo MB, was detained in Tungurahua, while in El Oro the same measure was applied to citizen María José L.

In total, 14 people have been arrested and among the evidence collected in the raids carried out by the Prosecutor’s Office and the Police are documents, 9 storage devices, 13 mobile terminals and 10 laptop computers.

The provincial prosecutor of Pichincha, Hernán Flores, indicated that around 25 raids were carried out, in which 23 tax agents participated “in order to eradicate this plague that operates in the justice system that has been systematized with a vicious circle, and which accounts, once again, for the profound emergence of corruption in State institutions.”

Flores added that in the next few hours charges will be filed against those involved and stressed that “the Prosecutor’s Office will not allow impunity.”