Former vice president Jorge Glas is on hunger strike in La Roca prison in Guayaquil, where he remains detained after the assault on the Mexican Embassy in Quito last Friday. His lawyer, Sonia Vera, who is part of his international defense team, spoke with Glas by video call four days after his arrest. Vera published the video of the conversation on social networks.
The Ecuadorian politician, second in the Government of Rafael Correa, narrates how the minutes of his capture passed at the diplomatic headquarters. According to Glas, four police officers held him by the arms behind his back and beat him. “Then they filmed again, they sat me down, I was all beaten up, and they read me the rights. When they sat me down I fainted, they told me get up, get up!, and I couldn't because I was all beat up. They took me out of the car, tortured, with my thumbs tied behind my back, like in the time of the dictatorship,” says Glas.
The contact with Glas occurs after the former president was emergency hospitalized on Monday due to decomposition due to not wanting to eat, said the SNAI, the government entity in charge of Ecuador's prisons. That's one version of what happened. The second version is that of a police report that claims that Glas was found in his cell suffering from an overdose of anxiolytics, antidepressants and sedatives.
Former president Rafael Correa wrote in X that he confirmed that “the medical emergency was a suicide attempt.” “He has not eaten anything and is on a hunger strike,” he wrote. After spending a day under medical observation, Glas returned amidst strong police and military security to the maximum security La Roca prison, where he remains held.
Finally, his children and their lawyers were able to connect with Jorge Glas via Zoom.
We have confirmed that the medical emergency was a suicide attempt. She has not eaten anything and is on a hunger strike.
We hold Daniel Noboa responsible for Jorge's physical and emotional integrity.… pic.twitter.com/YLMyjtrgbL— Rafael Correa (@MashiRafael) April 10, 2024
Glas has a hearing scheduled before the judges on April 11, to discuss the habeas corpus request presented by his defense, arguing that the assault on the Embassy was illegal and that his client obtained political asylum in Mexico. “Asylum did not give me freedom, but it gave me the dignity of being a politically persecuted person,” Glas told his lawyer, and thanked the Mexican government.
The assault on the embassy is unprecedented in the region and triggered international condemnation of the president of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, for violating international conventions that guarantee the inviolability of diplomatic headquarters.
Jorge Glas took refuge in the Mexican Embassy last Christmas to avoid testifying for a crime of embezzlement. The Prosecutor's Office is investigating him for the improper use of public funds intended for the reconstruction of two provinces affected by an earthquake in 2016. While the process was progressing, a judge ordered him preventive detention. This is the third corruption case he has faced. For one of the previous two he paid a five-year prison sentence. Glas, like Correa, who is in asylum in Belgium, considers himself a politically persecuted victim of the lawfare, as the instrumentalization of justice to harass opponents is known. Seven other people who held public positions during the Government of Rafael Correa are taking refuge in Mexico. Three of them also have corruption investigations pending in the Ecuadorian justice system.
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