By Xinhua | on September 2, 2023 | 10:09
The Ecuadorian judicial system ordered preventive detention for a terror crime for six detainees for their suspected involvement in this week’s car bomb explosion in the country’s capital Quito, the Attorney General’s Office (FGE) reported today, Friday.
The agency said in a statement that charges have been filed against these people in connection with the explosion of a vehicle in the La Mariscal sector, in the north-central part of the Ecuadorian capital, on the night of August 29.
He explained that the preventive detention was ordered by a judge after accepting a “reasoned request” from the public prosecutor’s office for the terrorist crime committed under the penal code of the South American country, the punishment of which is between 10 and 13 years of deprivation of liberty.
The vehicle, loaded with explosives and gas tanks, was detonated near the offices of the National Comprehensive Care Service (SNAI) for deprived adults and juvenile offenders, the government body responsible for controlling and maintaining the country’s prisons.
According to police, who cordoned off the area to collect evidence, the incident did not cause any casualties but did cause material damage.
According to the prosecutor’s investigation, the defendants bought fuel, put it in a container and then went to the scene of the attack, where they sprayed the gasoline on a car and a motorcycle and then set them on fire.
They then fled in a vehicle and were captured after a police chase in the La Y sector, about 5 kilometers from the site of the attack.
The Ecuadorian National Police announced that five of those arrested were Ecuadorians and one Colombian, all with previous convictions for robbery, extortion and murder.
The FGE stated that several procedures were carried out after the suspects were arrested.
A day after this first car bombing, another similar incident occurred, which also caused no casualties and was also near the SNAI offices in the capital, resulting in four arrests.
The Ecuadorian government has stated that these attacks are a response by organized crime to the authorities’ raids on prisons.
(Web editor: 周雨, Zhao Jian)