More judicial corruption in Ecuador?
Miami Herald:
The $42 million criminal libel case against Ecuador’s El Universo newspaper keeps generating controversy and asylum seekers.On Thursday, Monica Encalada, an Ecuadoran judge who reviewed the case, said she was seeking the protection of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission after exposing what she called “bald corruption” in the judicial system.During a press conference in Bogotá, Encalada said lawyers for Ecuador President Rafael Correa promised her $3,000 a month and steady work if she would rule against the newspaper.The libel case that Correa brought against an El Universo columnist and three executives was ultimately handled by Judge Juan Paredes. But when Paredes was questioned under oath on how he could turn a 150-page sentence so quickly, he said he relied on Encalada’s work.Facing a bank of microphones, Encalada called the magistrate a liar. While she admitted giving him a memory stick with part of the casework, none of that material ended up in the final sentence, she said. She claims that Paredes later told her that the sentence was written by Correa’s legal team.El Universo says it has proof that the sentence was written on a pirated version of Microsoft Word registered to a fictitious “Chucky Seven.” According to El Universo’s lawyers, the document has hidden encoding that matches other sentences written by Correa’s lawyer Gutenberg Vera. The newspaper is suing Paredes for inserting false statements in a public document.The government has ridiculed the “Chucky Seven” claims, as they are known in Ecuador, and has accused Encalada of being bought off by El Universo.The controversial libel case revolves around a scathing editorial that focused on the events of September 2010, when Correa was briefly taken hostage by protesting policemen. Four security officers died when they raided the hospital to free the president. A fifth person died at a separate location.
...Ecuador has also been accused of corruption in the case against Chevron that resulted in a huge judgment. It is hard to have much faith the in the fairness of the judicial process in Correa's Ecuador.
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