By Alexandra Valencia
QUITO, Sept 10 (Reuters) - An Ecuadorean court sentenced former President Abdala Bucaram to nine years and four months of imprisonment late on Wednesday for his involvement in a criminal organization that fraudulently sold medical supplies during the pandemic.
Bucaram, 74, who was in power from August 1996 to February 1997, may serve his sentence under house arrest due to his age, in accordance with Ecuadorean law.
Speaking to reporters from his home on Thursday, Bucaram said he would appeal the conviction and questioned the judge's impartiality, citing alleged previous social media attacks against his family.
"There is no crime; they concocted an absurd trial based on lies," Bucaram said.
One of Bucaram's sons, Jacobo Bucaram, was also convicted in the same case.
"The defendants formed an organized criminal structure that, repeatedly and in a concerted manner, committed crimes," the prosecutor's office said in a statement on the ruling.
The Attorney General's Office accused four individuals of obtaining financial benefits by negotiating the purchase of some 21,000 rapid COVID-19 tests and other medical supplies between March and August 2020, while Ecuador was experiencing one of the worst outbreaks of the pandemic in the region.
Bucaram's son was sentenced to the same term as his father. The others were a former traffic officer who was sentenced to 13 years and four months, while an Israeli citizen received a reduced sentence of two years and eight months for his cooperation during the trial.
Bucaram listened to the hearing via video conference from a hospital in the coastal city of Guayaquil, where he has been hospitalized due to heart problems.
CASE INTRICACIES
Prosecutors said traffic police officers provided security for two foreign nationals who were transporting the supplies to Bucaram's residence in Guayaquil.
"According to the investigation, those involved pretended to be members of the diplomatic corps or agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.
One of the foreigners involved — identified by the prosecutor's office as Shy D — was murdered in a Guayaquil prison in August 2020, days after testifying in the case.
(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia; Additional reporting by Yury García in Guayaquil, Editing by Saad Sayeed and Rod Nickel)
