Ecuador Court Sentences Ex-President Bucaram to Nine Years in Medical Supplies Case

Ecuador’s judiciary sentenced former President Abdala Bucaram and his son Jacobo to nine years and four months in prison for their roles as collaborators in an organized criminal scheme involving the illegal sale of COVID-19 tests and other medical supplies. The two alleged main perpetrators received sentences of 13 years and four months. Bucaram, 74, attended the first-instance hearing remotely from a Guayaquil clinic, where he was receiving treatment for heart problems, and may be eligible for house arrest under Ecuadorian law. The ruling followed a six-year legal process after an earlier dismissal of the charges was overturned on appeal. Bucaram has denied wrongdoing, saying the case exposed serious flaws in Ecuador’s judicial process; he was removed from office in 1997 after six months as president and later spent two decades in exile in Panama.