Five jailed for 2023 murder of Ecuador presidential candidate
Al Jazeera
Former journalist Fernando Villavicencio’s family and friends have urged an investigation into who ordered his killing.
A court in Ecuador has handed down prison sentences of 12 to 34 years to five people found guilty of conspiring to murder presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.
Journalist-turned-politician Villavicencio was shot dead while leaving a rally in August 2023. The killing of the anticorruption campaigner left the country reeling amid its spiralling violence, with the government declaring a state of emergency.
The ruling on Friday, read out by Milton Maroto, one of the court’s three judges, can be appealed by both the prosecution and the defence. The trial started at the end of June.
Prosecutors accused at least two of those tried of belonging to Los Lobos, among 22 criminal gangs designated as “terrorists” by President Daniel Noboa in January. The suspects were also accused of having ties to the administration of former President Rafael Correa.
According to the attorney general’s office, Carlos Edwin Angulo Lara, known as ‘El Invisible’ (‘The Invisible’), gave the order to murder Villavicencio from his jail cell, while another suspect, Laura Dayanara Castillo, was in charge of logistics.
