Former Ecuadorian President Abdala Bucaram and his son, Jacobo Bucaram, have been sentenced to nine years and four months in prison over a corruption case involving the illegal sale of medical supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The ruling was handed down by Ecuador’s judiciary on Wednesday after a trial that lasted six years. Prosecutors said the pair were found to have acted as “collaborators” in organised criminal activity linked to the sale of medical equipment, including COVID-19 test kits.
Bucaram, who was removed from office in 1997, followed the proceedings remotely from a medical clinic in Guayaquil, where he was receiving treatment for heart-related problems. Police officers were reportedly stationed at the facility during the hearing.
According to Ecuador’s attorney general’s office, the two individuals identified as the main perpetrators in the case were each sentenced to 13 years and four months in prison.
The case has been marked by a series of developments since it began. Charges against Bucaram and his son were dismissed by a judge in 2021, but prosecutors appealed the decision, allowing the legal proceedings to continue.
One of the other individuals implicated in the case was later murdered inside a prison in August 2020.
Before Wednesday’s ruling, Bucaram said on social media that he had requested to leave the clinic despite being at risk of sudden death. He said he wanted to defend himself and claimed that the country would eventually learn what he described as disturbing details about the case.
Bucaram served as Ecuador’s president for only about six months before Congress removed him from office in February 1997, citing “physical and mental incapacity.” He subsequently spent about two decades living in exile in Panama.
The latest ruling adds another major chapter to the controversial political and legal history of the former president.
