Quito, May 8 – The defense of the former Vice President of Ecuador, Jorge Glas, announced that he has approached the United Nations to resolve the situation of the former vice president who has been imprisoned since the attack on the Mexican embassy, where he was seeking asylum.
Lawyer Aitor Martinez explained that they asked the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to take action to demand that the Ecuadorian government provide the corresponding safe passage so that Glass could go to Mexican territory and thus continue the political asylum process.
Martinez pointed out that we insisted on the need for the Working Group to activate the emergency procedure, and that in the short term there may be some statements from the United Nations regarding the situation of arbitrary detention.
He stated that the politician, a member of the Citizens’ Revolution Movement, was the victim of a kidnapping and very serious ill-treatment at the time of his arrest on April 5 at the Mexican Embassy in Quito.
In the application submitted to the United Nations, the rights activists pointed out how the National Court of Justice declared his arrest unlawful and arbitrary, even though it decided to keep him in prison.
The defense also asked the UN group to send a delegation to visit the former official at the maximum security Lar Roca prison in Guayaquil.
In this regard, lawyer Sonia Vera, part of International Defense, reported that the former Vice President continues his hunger strike and denounced the failure to provide him with medicines.
In addition, the lawyers are concerned about the former vice president’s very limited communications within La Roca, which may prevent him from having private conversations with his legal team.
In turn, Glass’s legal representatives also took action in Mexico and Germany, since it also holds citizenship of the European country.
At the national level, on Tuesday, his lawyers filed a habeas corpus appeal to insist on his release.
Intellectuals, artists and politicians from several countries asked Ecuador to release the former official, who was subjected to judicial and political persecution for seven years and who was a refugee in the diplomatic headquarters, according to a letter with 161 signatures issued over the weekend.
For its part, the government of President Daniel Noboa justifies the violent invasion of the embassy to arrest Glass and, despite international condemnation of the event, accuses Mexico of granting illegal political asylum. (Text and photo: PL)
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