Ex-Ecuadorian President Sentenced To Jail

Ecuador's former President, Rafael Correa, has been sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison on charges of corruption during his tenure as president, the office of the attorney general says. 

Rafael, who currently lives in Belgium on exile, was Ecuador's president from the years 2007 to 2017 and was among the 18 people convicted of bribery.

Reacting to the sentence, Rafael, who had always assumed the role of the political victim, accusing Ecuador's judicial system of collusion repudiated the sentence.

He said, “I know the process and what the judges say is a LIE. They’ve proved absolutely NOTHING. Pure false testimony without evidence.”

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The courts found him guilty of receiving money from private organizations, channeling it into his 2013 campaign for president, reciprocating the largesse of the private bodies with a promise of state-awarded contracts.

Tied to the conviction was the country's former Vice President, Jorge Glas, who already had a six-year sentence for a separate case.

 “This was what they were looking for: manipulating justice to achieve what they never could at the ballot box,” Rafael said.