By six votes in favor and three against, the highest court decided to allow “the impeachment charge in connection with the alleged crime of embezzlement” against the president, the court said in a statement.
The judges rejected another ground put forward by the National Assembly for the alleged crime of concussion.
After examining the procedural motion, the Constitutional Court found that the motion “respected the principles of political legitimacy and due process,” for which it gave the legislature the green light.
The President must present evidence in his defense in the subsequent trial.
Congress, in which the majority is in opposition but is scattered, returned to the impeachment against Lasso following the release of a report by digital outlet La Posta.
The portal uncovered an alleged corruption structure for the allocation of public positions in state-owned companies set up by Danilo Carrera, Lasso’s brother-in-law who held no government positions.
Also involved in the case are Hernán Luque, a former presidential delegate to the board of Public Companies Coordinating Company (EMCO), and businessman close to Carrera Rubén Cherres, who is being investigated by prosecutors for drug trafficking.
Lasso, who took over the presidency in May 2021, denies the allegations and accuses Congress of wanting to “destabilize” his unpopular government.
Although it opposed the court’s ruling, the government said it respected it.
“This decision in no way confirms the arguments made by lawmakers against the president,” the government’s secretariat-general for communications said in a statement.
spirit of ungovernability
Beset by a powerful indigenous movement and massive protests, three presidents in Ecuador were overthrown between 1997 and 2005.
The specter of ungovernability is haunting the country again, where the president faced violent demonstrations against the high cost of living that left six dead.
Lasso survived an attempt by the legislature to sack him amid mobilizations last June.
“Lasso faces political charges and must answer to the assembly for his terror and incompetence,” said MP Viviana Veloz, who submitted the trial motion along with 58 other MPs on Twitter.
Assembly members claim that the 67-year-old president was responsible for “protecting the links of a criminal structure in public corporations.
The executive claimed that the assembly members’ motion had “innumerable flaws” and that “it has never had, and never will have, legal or political support.”
Should Lasso be sacked, Vice President Alfredo Borrero will succeed him.