(Quito) The National Court of Justice of Ecuador on Friday rejected a request from former vice-president Jorge Glas, who called for his release, however deeming his arrest “illegal and arbitrary” during a police raid in the Mexican embassy in Quito.
Jorge Glas requested his release as part of the habeas corpus procedure, which allows a detention seen as arbitrary to be challenged.
The intrusion, last week, of police into the Mexican embassy to arrest Mr. Glas – targeted by an arrest warrant for alleged corruption – caused the breakdown of diplomatic relations between Mexico and Quito and an international outcry.
During the hearing, the National Court of Justice (CNJ) – the highest court in the country – recognized the illegal and arbitrary nature of the arrest of Mr. Glas, who had taken refuge since December 17 in the embassy of Mexico.
She notably took into account the fact that no search warrant had been issued for the police raid on the diplomatic compound.
Around fifty supporters of the former vice-president gathered near the CNJ to celebrate his decision.
Jorge Glas, vice president between 2013 and 2017 under former socialist president Rafael Correa, is accused of embezzlement of public funds intended for the reconstruction of coastal towns after a devastating earthquake in 2016.
In another case, Mr. Glas was sentenced in December 2017 to six years in prison for corruption in a vast scandal involving the Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht. He was released from prison last November.