Government of Ecuador says it fears a possible escape of Jorge Glas after his release from prison; the former vice president denies that he has that intention

Former Vice President Jorge Glas is released from prison, after appeal from his lawyer 4:30 (CNN Spanish) – The government of Ecuador reported this Tuesday that “it cannot guarantee” that former Vice President Jorge Glas will not escape from the country after being released from prison on Sunday after a judge accepted a writ of habeas corpus for medical and security reasons. Glas was released from prison four and a half years after his arrest in the Odebrecht bribery scheme. The Minister of the Interior, Patricio Carrillo, insisted that it is necessary for the Justice to determine that Glas carry an electronic surveillance device that supports the work of the Police in his custody, otherwise it becomes more complicated to control his movements outside prison. Carrillo reported that, after his release from the Latacunga prison, Glas is guarded by the police from outside his home in Guayaquil, but that he cannot do anything else if the sentenced person does not wear an electronic shackle for surveillance and monitoring, something that the judge did not provide for it in his ruling. “We will make the effort that the law allows us, but within those limits there will always be a possibility (of escape). It cannot be guaranteed 100%, but we are going to make the effort,” Minister Carrillo said, although without presenting clear evidence or indications of an escape attempt. Carrillo said that he also cannot reveal the work that the intelligence service is doing on the Glas situation. In a conversation with journalists at the Palacio de Carondelet, the Minister of Government, Francisco Jiménez, said that the authorities are “aware of what the escape of Mr. Glas would mean for the country and this government,” noting that they are “sure of the level of instability, convulsion and commotion that would generate” that supposed escape. According to Edison Loayza, Glas’s lawyer, the former vice president was suffering from a “serious health situation” inside the prison and to this was added the prison violence that put his safety at risk and therefore the acceptance of habeas corpus was appropriate. Consulted by CNN, Loayza replied that the former vice president has no intention of fleeing the country. “We are calm. There is no intention or indication that the engineer Glas wants to flee the country. He is going to medical centers to have tests and health checks on him. The Police have reinforced his security and it is better for him that this is happening. He continues to serve his sentence outside of jail,” Loayza told CNN. Rafael Correa and Jorge Glas no longer have state security 0:31 Minister Jiménez assured that “there is no political pact” between the government of Guillermo Lasso and Correismo to support a release of Glas from prison in exchange for governability and support in the Assembly for the approval of laws. “The State has the obligation to monitor Jorge Glas. Nobody is interested in this man escaping, ”he emphasized. President Lasso, through a message on Twitter, reiterated that there is no agreement or pact that has allowed Glas to be released from prison. “I would never agree with corruption, we have not agreed with corruption (…) They have said something that is not true, I have no sympathy for Mr. Glas,” Lasso insisted. Glas was vice president during the governments of Rafael Correa and Lenín Moreno. With Moreno, he was in the vice presidency a few months before he removed his duties and was prosecuted within the Odebrecht construction bribery scheme. Glas was serving an eight-year prison sentence for the crimes of illicit association (2017) and aggravated bribery (2020) associated with the Odebrecht plot. According to the Prosecutor’s Office, these two sentences were executed and a third sentence for the crime of embezzlement is pending an appeal. Glas was serving an 8-year prison sentence, according to the institution. In December 2016, Odebrecht pleaded guilty before the Eastern District of New York court to conspiring to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) through a scheme that involved the payment of almost US$800 million in bribes to public officials from 12 countries, including Ecuador. The Prosecutor’s Office insisted that during the proceedings the crimes for which Glas was sentenced have been proven, although he has frequently maintained that he was “sentenced without evidence” and that the cases against him are part of political persecution. The government reported that it ordered the Service for the Attention of Persons Deprived of Liberty (SNAI) to present an appeal to the ruling that allowed the release of the former vice president and that this could be a way to “reverse” a sentence that it considers irregular and abusive of the straight.