QUITO (Reuters) -Former Ecuadorean Vice President Jorge Glas will be discharged from hospital and returned to prison on Tuesday, the SNAI prisons agency said in a statement, adding that his health is at an acceptable level.
Glas, already twice convicted of corruption and now facing fresh charges, was arrested on Friday after a raid by police on Mexico’s Quito embassy, where he had been living since December.
He was taken to the naval hospital in Guayaquil on Monday, after the prison service said he refused to eat the food provided in jail.
“In accordance with evaluations carried out by the (hospital) personnel, the citizen is now presenting acceptable parameters of health, within normal range,” the SNAI said in a social media statement on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Glas will be discharged at some point on Tuesday, returning to the Guayas No. 3 prison, the SNAI said, adding that his physical integrity will be protected.
Glas’ lawyers this week have expressed alarm that Glas has been unable to speak to his legal team, which has repeatedly warned the politician’s life could be in danger in prison.
“Yesterday they blocked my entrance to the naval hospital, which means that humane rules, international and national laws have been violated,” lawyer Eduardo Franco Loor told Reuters, adding that a motion for Glas’ release has been filed.
The unusual raid that led to Glas’ arrest escalated a simmering dispute between Ecuador and Mexico, prompting Mexico to suspend diplomatic relations with Ecuador and drawing criticism from countries around the region and elsewhere.
Both countries have defended their actions but also said they are willing to work on their relationship.
Ecuador’s government has said it has evidence that Glas was planning to escape, though it has not provided details.
Video clips from inside the embassy broadcast during Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s daily press conference on Tuesday showed a door violently forced open, as well as a man, who appeared to be Glas, being carried out, his arms and legs hoisted up by police or soldiers.
The video also showed embassy staff attempting to block another door, but then being moved aside by armed Ecuadorean security officers.
“We can’t allow something like this to brushed away. We won’t keep quiet,” said Lopez Obrador, adding the video will be used in Mexico’s request for the U.N. International Court of Justice take up the case.
Leftist Glas, who was vice president from 2013 to 2017, was sentenced to six years in 2017 for taking bribes from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht in return for state contracts.
He was convicted again in 2020 of using money from contractors to fund campaigns for ex-President Rafael Correa’s political movement and given an eight-year sentence.
Glas served more than four years in prison before being released in 2022. He now faces charges of misusing reconstruction funds after a devastating 2016 earthquake.
Glas has long alleged the charges against him are politically motivated, an accusation prosecutors have denied.
(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia in Quito, additional reporting Raul Cortes Fernandez in Mexico CityWriting by Julia Symmes CobbEditing by Matthew Lewis)
