Quito, July 1 -- Ecuador's former Vice President Jorge Glas was sentenced to 13 years in prison for embezzling public funds intended for reconstruction following a devastating 2016 earthquake, local media said Monday.
According to Ecuadorian newspapers, the sentence was unanimously passed after six days of trial hearings by a tribunal of the National Court of Justice.
The tribunal determined that Glas and the former secretary of the Reconstruction Committee, Carlos Bernal, had taken advantage of their positions to misappropriate public funds by prioritising projects that did not address urgent reconstruction needs in the provinces of Manabi and Esmeraldas - the hardest hit areas by the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that claimed over 600 ...