(EFE).- Ecuador on Thursday began the political censorship trial of the country’s President, Guillermo Lasso, who has protested his innocence on charges of embezzlement (misappropriation of public funds). The trial was brought by the opposition, led by Rafael Correa’s party, who in turn was sentenced in 2020 to eight years in prison and 25 years from his profession for corruption.
After the Constitutional Court on Wednesday gave the green light to proceed with the impeachment trial for the crime of embezzlement and omitted the crime of concussion, National Assembly President Virgilio Saquicela received the decision and began the schedule.
Now the Assembly’s Legislative Governing Body, which is controlled by the opposition, has three days to hear the Court’s opinion and send it to the Oversight Commission, which will notify the President and the interpellants about it in 10 days to present evidence.
Now the opposition-controlled Assembly Legislative Board has three days to learn the court’s opinion and forward it to the Oversight Commission
The commission has an additional 10 days to process the evidence, a source at the gathering told EFE, noting that after this period the commission will issue a reasoned report in 10 additional days, recommending whether or not to go ahead with the trial .
Thereafter, within a maximum of three days, the President of Parliament orders the report to be circulated, and after 48 hours of this circulation, the President has five days to convene the session at which the impeachment will take place.
To censure the head of state requires 92 votes, equivalent to two-thirds of the chamber, which consists of 137 MPs.
Opposition forces are expected to have enough votes to censure Lasso, while the ruling party, a clear minority in the chamber, assures it will not find that easy to match.
The opposition tried last year when, in June amid fierce protests by the indigenous movement, they put forward a motion to remove Lasso, which the president was able to save with a few votes.
This time the Ecuadorian President faces the new stake in a more delicate position, after the severe setback he suffered in the electoral appointment of February 5, losing the referendum he called to carry out constitutional reforms, while correísmo he was the great Local election winners.
The president accused the opposition of fabricating evidence to “seize power and weaken and destroy democracy.”
In a message to the nation this Thursday, in which he appeared with his wife María de Lourdes Alcívar and in front of a large group of citizens with the Ecuadorian flag in the background, Lasso pleaded not guilty and assured that this political trial was “very smells bad”. “.
The president accused the opposition of fabricating evidence to “seize power and weaken and destroy democracy.”
Lasso believed that the Constitutional Court omitted the crime of concussion from the prosecution for lack of evidence, arguing that the embezzlement was based on public company Flota Petrolera Ecuatoriana (Flopec) contracts signed in 2018 and 2020 before it entered the presidency in 2021.
The President denounced that an indictment had been formulated with “evidence fraudulently obtained, violations of due process, use of false articles and obtaining illegal evidence”.
For Lasso, this is “a process created with false ‘memes'” which “has neither head nor tail because the lies fabricated are unsustainable” and which is “a desperate, timeless and violent attempt to steal stability from the country”. . .
“It bothers me, it offends me, it angers me that they are trying to assassinate my reputation and that of my homeland,” added the ruler, before repeating that he was “innocent of these hoaxes” which, for him, ” had been invented.
The Constitutional Court’s decision fueled speculation about the possibility that Lasso resorted to so-called “cross death,” a figure provided for in the constitution that allows the head of state to dissolve the assembly, call snap elections, and govern for a year-long decree.
For his part, Saquicela, the President of the Assembly, confirmed that the judgment of the Constitutional Court confirmed the legality of the procedure initiated by the opposition
However, Government Minister Henry Cucalón, in statements to journalists, anticipated that “the firm decision (of the President) to defend himself is to go before the National Assembly to falsify this process of impeachment, which has no basis”.
For his part, Saquicela, the President of the Assembly, confirmed that the judgment of the Constitutional Court confirmed the legality of the procedure initiated by the opposition.
After Lasso described the initiative as a “parliamentary coup”, Saquicela pointed out that the verdict was in favor of the assembly’s actions.
“Finally, it will be the plenary, as the highest organ of the legislature, that will decide with the utmost responsibility and strict compliance with the constitution,” concluded Saquicela.
Meanwhile, the Citizens’ Revolutionary Party, led by former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017), said in a statement that “impeachment is a democratic expression in the face of a devastated country,” and the former ruler added that lasso go to court become “bin (dustbin) of history”.
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