The togado is investigated for alleged “usurpation and simulation of public functions.”
The National Police of Ecuador arrested Judge Banny Molina Barrezueta, who recently granted a ‘habeas corpus’ to the former vice president of the South American country, Jorge Glas.
Molina was arrested on Tuesday night, as confirmed by the Minister of the Interior, Patricio Carrillo, through his Twitter account.
The State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) detailed that the arrest took place in the community of San Jacinto, belonging to the canton of Sucre in the province of Manabí, on the Ecuadorian coast.
According to the institution, the detention is for “investigative purposes”because Molina was denounced for alleged “usurpation and simulation of public functions”.
“The detainee is already under the orders of the Prosecutor’s Office, which continues collecting evidence that allow to determine the existence or not of the presumed crime and the responsibility of the denounced”, indicated the FGE.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Prosecutor’s Office reported the start of the investigation against Molina, after receiving a complaint filed by the director of the Judicial Council, Andrés Peñaherrera.
According to the complaint, the FGE specifies, the judge would have committed the alleged crime of “usurpation and simulation of public functions” by issuing three release tickets at 4:46 p.m. on Friday, August 5, “when he was disabledbecause he was called to trial in another case, at 1:00 p.m. that day”.
The habeas corpus
Last Friday, although it became known on Monday, Molina granted a ‘habeas corpus’ in favor of Christian Eduardo Araujo Salgado, in response to a lawsuit filed by Leonardo David Buendía Silva.
The judge, in addition to granting the benefit to Araujo and ordering his release, granted it with “extensive effect and/or intercommunis” Glas, as well as another inmate identified as Daniel Salcedo —sentenced for corruption—. Likewise, he issued the release tickets in favor of the three beneficiaries.
After hearing the news, the Judiciary Council issued a release in which he warned that he would act “with absolute firmness within the scope of his powers.”
The institution indicated that Molina Barrezueta acted “without jurisdiction” in the process of granting the ‘habeas corpus’.
In addition, he said that against the togado there is “a summons to trial” for the alleged crime of “prevarication” and that, by virtue of that, “Judge Molina’s jurisdiction is legally suspended”.
The president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, made it clear that “the institutions of the Ecuadorian State will file the corresponding legal resources and will not make any decision to release any citizen who violates the legal system and contributes to judicial anarchy.”
This is the second habeas corpus granted to Glas. The first was in April, but in May it was revoked and his recapture was ordered.
Currently, the former vice president is serving two final (firm) sentences: six years in prison for the crime of illicit association in the ‘Odebrecht Case’, for which he was convicted in December 2017; and eight years for aggravated bribery in the case known as ‘Bribes 2012-2016’, for which he was sentenced in 2020.
Source: RT
