Belgium: 'It’s nonsense' - Rafael Correa on his 8-year sentence in Ecuador *PARTNER CONTENT*

SOT, Rafael Correa, former President of Ecuador (Spanish): “Look, this is nonsense. The main evidence was based on some files that were on the computers of a consultant. We managed to get these files, and with international expertise, companies from there, from Colombia, we proved that they were hacked in 2016 and modified till 2018, that is, an absolutely forged piece of evidence. They did not accept that proof. They will accept it internationally. But what are they afraid of!? They fear knowing the truth. So they didn't accept that proof. Yesterday, I don't want to be boring, but they said that a $6,000 loan was the bribe I had received, and an expert who was not, an ‘expert,’ said that there was a criminal structure, and that I was leading it, and later we discovered that she was not an expert... In any case, there was a leak of thousands of documents, showing, imagine, that the secretary of the prosecutor was in permanent contact with the president of the court, the secretary Marta [inaudible], and the president of the court Ivan Leon. They were even a couple... I don't want to go into personal issues, but clearly there were favours there, that's why the judge is compromised. The judge was appointed on February 12 and they brought this young lady from Cotopaxi to make her his secretary on March 1. But they didn't exchange electricity bills or phone bills. No! They exchanged processes! Back and forth! That is an illicit association. That is influence peddling. That is procedural fraud. And since there was that leak yesterday and it shows that the sentence was ready beforehand, and they accused me of authorship and of leading the organisation, they spent the night awake and changed it, and now it turns out that it is instigation. They have left many gaps in their accusation, but they aggravated it with anger, and they charged us with eight years when the law says that the maximum is five years.”
SCRIPT
Former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa was sentenced on Tuesday to eight years in prison, in absentia, for the crime of "aggravated bribery" by the National Court of Justice in his home country.
In statements made on Wednesday to RT from his current home in Brussels via videoconference, Correa gave his opinion on the court ruling, stating that "this is nonsense" and that "they have left many gaps in this accusation.”
The Ecuadorian Prosecutor's Office alleged that Correa and others had accepted financing for his political party, Alianza PAÍS, from private companies in return for state contracts. According to this ruling, Correa and former Vice President Jorge Glas are considered "perpetrators at the instigation of aggravated bribery."
In addition to prison, the sentence includes a ban on political participation for a period of 25 years and the payment of a fee in concept of damages.