Ecuador jails ex-President Moreno five years for bribery

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An Ecuadoran court on Friday sentenced ex-president Lenin Moreno to five years in prison for accepting bribes from a Chinese company that built the country’s biggest hydroelectric dam.

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The prosecution said on X that Moreno, who governed from 2017 to 2021, was among 20 people convicted in the case involving the construction of the Coca Codo Sinclair dam by China’s Sinohydro.

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Moreno was vice-president under socialist president Rafael Correa at the time of the alleged corruption, between 2007 and 2013.

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He succeeded Correa, with the latter’s backing, but later fell out with his mentor by shifting to the right and aligning himself more closely with the United States.

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Moreno has already announced plans to appeal the court’s ruling, which also saw his wife and other relatives sentenced to nearly three years in prison for complicity.

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Prosecutors had sought a six-and-a-half-year prison term for Moreno.

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The 73-year-old paraplegic, who served as the United Nations special envoy on disability issues, insisted Friday after the ruling that he had never received “a single cent” from Sinohydro.

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He blamed the case on “the Correa regime,” saying his former backer-turned-rival, who has also been convicted of corruption but lives in Belgium, “promised to take revenge on me.”

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Prosecutors say Sinohydro paid bribes totaling $76 million, around four percent of the cost of the hydroelectric project.

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Among those convicted alongside Moreno were two former managers of the power plant.

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AFP

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