National Court of Justice grants ‘habeas corpus’ to Paúl Granda, former IESS director prosecuted for alleged crime of organized crime

The National Court of Justice granted the habeas corpus to Paúl Granda, former president of the board of directors of the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute (IESS), prosecuted for an alleged crime of organized crime to illegally deliver contracts for supplies in hospitals of the institution in Guayaquil along with other political figures.

This was confirmed by his lawyer, Juan Carlos Salazar, who pointed out that with this the house arrest that Granda had is without effect. The former official must comply with two measures: appear periodically before a prosecutor, in Quito, and the prohibition of leaving the country.

Paúl Granda, former IESS director: If it is said that I met with Dalo Bucaram and he has already been dismissed, why are they calling me to trial?

“The habeas corpus It will allow Paúl Granda to defend himself in freedom (…), he has a golden opportunity to physically appear at the (trial) hearing and fight for his freedom ”, said the lawyer.

Salazar mentioned that within the main ordinary procedure for organized crime, the trial hearing could only be installed last Tuesday.

The Judicial Police reviewed evidence in the case of organized crime in IESS hospitals

“We do not have a date for a continuation yet. The trial hearing has to be exhausted, at the trial hearing the Prosecutor’s Office will present all its organs of evidence, the defense will present its organs of evidence as well, and the judge will have to decide ”, commented Granda’s lawyer.

This hearing was supposed to be installed last July, but that has not happened. In general, more than one hundred witnesses must appear, so it is expected that the diligence will be carried out in at least 20 sessions.

Within the process, the Prosecutor’s Office argued that from his senior position, Granda “would have favored” the signing of payment agreements (forms of contracting) to suppliers in the IESS. But the former official affirmed that the institution had no proof of this, and that it was going to show this at the trial hearing.

One of the evidence presented by the Prosecutor’s Office was a log of visits to a hotel in Guayaquil that allegedly gave an account of a meeting between Granda and Dalo Bucaram, as well as some of the defendants, to talk about the contracts granted supposedly with surcharges.

Throughout this case, Juan Carlos Salazar, Granda’s lawyer, explained that the process is “unfair.” And it supports it in that the payment agreements would have been signed between 2016 and September 2018, and Granda arrived at the IESS as a delegate of former president Lenín Moreno in December of that year.

Second, that the IESS Board of Directors does not have among its powers the signing of contracts. Article 115 of the Social Security Law states that hospitals are administratively and financially autonomous.

In the case, apart from Granda, other people are being processed: Jacobo Bucaram Pulley, Daniel Salcedo, Noé Salcedo, Luis Jairala, Jorge San Lucas, Karina Cadena, Pablo Mendoza, Jorge Henriques, Federico Zenck, Susana Mera and Javier Jordán.

In addition to Abdalá Bucaram Pulley, his wife Gabriela Pazmiño and his brother Michel were dismissed last May; and Stéfano Adum. The Prosecutor’s Office filed an appeal that was denied by Judge Guerrero as being untimely, but then he filed a de facto appeal to insist on his request, which has not yet been answered.

Granda’s family has waged a campaign to demand justice. On June 15 they held a sit-in in Cuenca; in July, in Quito; and there were other sit-ins in different cities of the country. (I)