Abdala Bucaram, the former president of Ecuador, was found guilty of collaboration with organized crime and corruption on Wednesday, resulting in a prison sentence of nine years and four months. The conviction stems from his involvement in the unlawful sale of COVID-19 diagnostic tests and other medical equipment during the 2020 pandemic.
Bucaram’s son, Jacob Bucaram, also received a sentence related to the illegal distribution of at least 21,000 coronavirus tests and various medical supplies. The legal proceedings spanned six years, resuming after the attorney general’s office appealed a 2021 ruling that had previously dismissed charges against both the former leader and his son.
The former president, who served as head of state until being removed from office in 1997 due to a determination that he was mentally unfit to govern, heard the verdict remotely. He was attending medical treatment at a guarded clinic in Guayaquil, where he had been admitted following heart surgery and an intensive care stay.
Upon his arrest in 2020, Bucaram was initially placed under house arrest due to health complications. After the sentencing, he released a statement on the platform X, claiming he had requested discharge from the facility despite warnings of imminent death risk. “I will be able to defend myself, and the country will learn horrifying things about this process,” he wrote.
Prosecutors alleged that COVID-19 tests were illegally moved to Bucaram’s home in Guayaquil, which was secured by traffic police from Quito. The public prosecutor’s office stated that the supplies were sold across multiple provinces without invoices and without remitting taxes to the state. Bucaram returned to Ecuador from nearly two decades of exile in Panama in 2017.
It’s been six years of legal proceedings. I wonder if the statute of limitations should have ended this sooner.
Interesting he claims he requested discharge despite death risks. Sounds like a deflection tactic to me.
Does this mean Jacob faces jail too, or just fines? The article is vague on his son’s exact sentence.
Nine years seems light for such a massive breach of trust during a health crisis.
Finally some accountability for pandemic corruption. Justice is slow but it came.