The Public Ministry of Ecuador asked a Quito judge on Wednesday to validate a request for Preventive detention for former President Lenín Moreno and his wife, Rocío González, currently abroad, who are being investigated for corruption in the context of a case named Sinohydro.
Since March 13, 2023, the news portal Primicias writes, the 37 defendants in the Sinohydro case must appear periodically before the National Court of Justice (CNJ). to ensure their presence at a possible corruption trial.
However, ten of the defendants have not complied with the provisions, including Moreno and his wife who are in Paraguay, for which reason the assistant prosecutor Wilson Toainga has requested that they be ordered preventive detention.
In addition, in the case of defendants who are abroad, such as Lenín Moreno and his wife, the prosecutor requested a notification to Interpol for their search and capture. The alleged corruption would have been committed between 2010 and 2018.
Its amount would be approximately 76 million dollars, considered the largest illegal movement of public money in the history of the country.
The political crisis in Ecuador increases
In parallel with the request for preventive arrest against Lenin Moreno and his wife, the president of Ecuador, William Lasso, He indicated that he could dissolve the National Assembly (Congress) and call early elections if the political trial that opposition groups promote against him for an alleged case of embezzlement progresses, since the president considers that the accusations are unfounded and have only partisan purposes.
Lasso, who was hospitalized on Saturday for a urinary infection, said he would dissolve the Assembly and call early elections if he does not get enough support from legislators to avoid his dismissal amid the impeachment trial against him, in an interview published today by the American newspaper Financial Times.
Since last month, the opposition majority in the Assembly promoted the impeachment, which may end in the censure or dismissal of Lasso.
This opposition needs 92 votes from 137 legislators to achieve the goal.
The impeachment trial against Lasso, which if successful would mean the dismissal of the Ecuadorian president, is based on a accusation for money laundering derived from a hydrocarbon transportation contract between the state company Flopec and the private company Amazonas Tankerand which, according to the Comptroller’s Office, caused the country a loss of about 6.1 million dollars.
The contract in question is still in force, although it was signed in 2020, during the government of former President Lenín Moreno.
Source: Ambito
