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Ecuador’s vice president Jorge Glas has requested the right to defend himself against the charges of corruption that have been levelled against him in front of a Plenary of the National Assembly.
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In a letter addressed to Jose Serrano, President of the Legislative, Glas denounced the unconstitutionality of the procedure that the Legislative Administrative Council, CAL, has initiated against him, which he said violates Article 129 of the Ecuadorean Constitution.
He, therefore, is requesting to appear personally before the Plenary of the National Assembly to exercise his right to defend himself.
"I transmit my will to submit myself to the political trial to be able to appear before the Plenary of the National Assembly and be heard personally, since it is important that the assembly members and the Ecuadorean people listen to what I have to say,” Glas pressed in the letter.
The letter addressed to Serrano was published by former Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, through his Twitter account.
— Rafael Correa (@MashiRafael) December 30, 2017
Glas was elected vice-president in the second electoral round last April, alongside Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno, as leader of the left-wing Alianza Pais party. This month, he became the highest-ranking elected official convicted in the Odebrecht corruption case.
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Correa has denounced the sentence as condemning "an innocent."
"A trial full of so many irregularities will have to go to the international bodies, but they already have their objective: to seize the vice presidency," Correa had tweeted in mid-December. "The same script as with Dilma, Lula, Cristina. It's all a matter of time, our people will react."
Glas' defense counsel, Eduardo Franco Loor, has announced they will appeal his six-year sentence, which he described as "iniquitous" and "barbaric," insisting also that his client will not resign.
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