Former Ecuadorian President Abdalá Bucaram Ortiz appeared in a video on Saturday, September 12, alongside his son Jacobo Bucaram Pulley to deny that Jacobo had left the country for Colombia.
"Aquí estoy con mi hijo Jacobito" ("Here I am with my son Jacobito"), Bucaram said at the start of the recording, in which his son and his wife, María Rosa Pulley, also appeared, filmed in the dining room of their home in the Kennedy Norte neighborhood.
Bucaram said neither he nor his son planned to leave the country following the sentence handed down against them for organized crime in the case involving irregular sales of COVID-19 tests. He said they are a happy family and would remain in the country until the last day, because they consider the trial void, arguing that an agreement between private parties is not a crime anywhere in the world.
Nine-year prison sentence
Last Wednesday, September 9, Bucaram and his son Jacobo were given an oral sentence of nine years and four months in prison. A tribunal found them to have collaborated in a structure that irregularly sold coronavirus tests during the 2020 pandemic.
In the weeks before the sentence was read, Bucaram had been admitted to three different health facilities, and the hearing to deliver the ruling failed to go ahead six times. On the seventh attempt, the tribunal issued the sentence while Bucaram was still hospitalized and wearing an oxygen mask.
Press conference after release
Hours later, on Thursday, the former president was back home and appeared in good spirits during a press conference he called himself. He spoke for more than an hour about the first-instance ruling against him and said he would appeal the decision.
Bucaram also said his health had worsened in recent months, claiming he now experiences more arrhythmias than he did before a recent operation.
Questions over judge's impartiality
As he had done at the press conference, Bucaram used the video to reaffirm his view that the trial was void, and he renewed his criticism of one of the tribunal's judges, Gandhy Cervantes.
Bucaram has said the judge made public posts that he believes show a prior stance against his family, arguing Cervantes should have recused himself from the case. It is anticipated that Bucaram's defense will use those posts to challenge the judge's impartiality.
The tribunal that issued the sentence was made up of Cervantes along with judges Ivonne Vásquez and Pablo Coello.
Abdalá Bucaram served as president of Ecuador from 1996 to 1997 before being removed by the National Congress on grounds of mental incapacity, a decision he has long disputed. He remains one of the country's most prominent political figures.
