Ecuador’s judiciary has sentenced former President Abdala Bucaram and his son, Jacobo, to nine years and four months in prison over a corruption case involving the illegal sale of medical supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Channels Television, the first-instance ruling was delivered on Wednesday after a trial that lasted six years. The case involved the sale of medical supplies, including COVID-19 test kits.
Bucaram, who was removed from office in 1997, attended the hearing remotely from a clinic in Guayaquil, where he was receiving treatment for heart problems. Police officers were stationed at the facility during the proceedings.
Ecuador’s Attorney General’s Office said Bucaram and his son were designated as “collaborators” in organised criminal activity.
Two other individuals described as the main perpetrators were each sentenced to 13 years and four months in prison, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
The case has had a lengthy legal history. A judge dismissed the charges against Bucaram and his son in 2021, but proceedings resumed after the Attorney General’s Office appealed the decision.
One person implicated in the case was later murdered inside a prison in August 2020.
Before the ruling, Bucaram said on X that he had requested to leave the clinic despite being at risk of sudden death, adding that he wanted to defend himself and expose what he described as troubling aspects of the process.
Bucaram became Ecuador’s president in 1996 but was removed by Congress in February 1997, about six months after taking office, on grounds of “physical and mental incapacity”. He subsequently spent two decades in exile in Panama.
