justice considers “illegal” the arrest of former vice-president Jorge Glas, but leaves him in prison

Ecuadorian justice has described“illegal and arbitrary” Friday April 12 the arrest in the Mexican embassy of former vice-president Jorge Glas. The court relied in particular on the fact that no search warrant had been issued to authorize the police to enter the diplomatic compound. But the latter will nevertheless remain in prison to serve previous sentences, pending a new court decision. He therefore continues his detention in a high security unit in Guayaquil (southwest).

The National Court of Justice (CNJ), which is the highest court in the country, was seized by the former vice-president, who demanded his release as part of a habeas corpus procedure, making it possible to challenge detention seen as arbitrary. This is what the advice of Jorge Glas, vice-president of Ecuador from 2013 to 2017, who had just been granted asylum by Mexico, defended.

But this diplomatic protection was not enough. On April 5, while Ecuador was placed in a state of emergency, Ecuadorian police officers entered the Mexican embassy in Quito to arrest Jorge Glas, on an arrest warrant for alleged embezzlement. A rare intrusion in the history of chancelleries, which caused the breakdown of diplomatic relations between Mexico and Quito and an international outcry.