An Ecuadorian court on Friday sentenced former president Lenin Moreno to five years in prison for accepting bribes from a Chinese company involved in the construction of the country’s largest hydroelectric dam.
The prosecution said on X that Moreno, who served as president from 2017 to 2021, was among 20 people convicted in the corruption case involving the construction of the Coca Codo Sinclair dam by Chinese state-owned company Sinohydro.
Moreno was vice-president under leftist president Rafael Correa during the period in which the alleged corruption took place, between 2007 and 2013.
He succeeded Correa as president with his former mentor’s backing but later broke with him, shifting to the right and forging closer ties with the United States.
Moreno, 73, has said he will appeal Friday’s ruling. His wife and other relatives were also sentenced to nearly three years in prison for complicity.
Prosecutors had sought a six-and-a-half-year prison sentence for the former president.
Moreno, who is paraplegic and previously served as the United Nations special envoy on disability and accessibility, denied the allegations after the verdict, insisting he had never received “a single cent” from Sinohydro.
He blamed the case on the “Correa regime”, accusing his former ally-turned-rival, who has also been convicted of corruption and now lives in Belgium, of having “promised to take revenge on me.”
Prosecutors alleged that Sinohydro paid $76 million in bribes, equivalent to about four percent of the cost of the hydroelectric project.
Two former managers of the power plant were among those convicted alongside Moreno.
The Coca Codo Sinclair dam, one of Ecuador’s largest infrastructure projects, was built by Sinohydro and has been at the centre of corruption allegations involving officials and intermediaries.
AFP
