The police agent’s lawyer assured that they will appeal the sentence.
The Ecuadorian Police Santiago Olmedo was sentenced this Wednesday to three years and four months in prison for killing two criminals in the middle of an armed robbery in the city of Riobamba, for a crime of exceeding the use of force.
Hugo Espín Tobar, the police’s lawyer, assured that they will appeal the sentence because, in his opinion, “innocence should have been ratified”, given that the public agent acted in defense of third parties and himself.
Olmedo will continue to carry out his duties as long as there is no final judgment.
The events occurred on June 11 when the police went to the scene of an assault in the city of Riobamba, while two armed criminals tried to assault a minor.
The agent killed the two involved, for which he was charged with excessive use of force.
Before the media, Olmedo declared today that he feels “concerned” but “convinced that we acted well” and that the procedure was “correct” in such a way that the minor he defended from an assault in June is today alive and “walks freely”.
The sentence that was applied to him is reduced, taking into account that he could have reached between 10 and 13 years in prison.
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However, his lawyer said that the judges determined that there are no aggravating factors and they considered “how the events occurred”, according to the lawyer, when taking into account that the life of a minor was at stake.
“The good ones are more and we are going to continue working for the well-being of the community,” Olmedo emphasized at the end of the diligence in the Ecuadorian capital.
In his appearance before the media, he described the sentence as unjust, but clarified that it is not “the final war” but simply “a battle” who will continue to fight.
In October, amid a spiral of street and prison violence, the President Guillermo Lasso showed his support for police officials in their patrolling and citizen security tasks.
“Do it with the certainty that the President of the Republic and the Government support you. You are not going to leave them alone,” he declared in the Quito regiment.
The president took the opportunity to announce that he would take charge of the defense of the policemen “unjustly accused for the performance of their duty” and that it would issue pardons for officials unjustly sentenced.
Olmedo told the national media in previous days that the president would have expressed his “total support” for him, although he also believed in the independence of powers. (I)
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