El Universo Case Could End in Nine Days

Temporary judges Geovanny Criollo, Leonidas Plaza and Gerardo Morales

The defense of El Universo seeks that the new National Court of Justice (CNJ by its Spanish acronym) be the one that works on the process against the Perez brother, directors of the newspaper, along with the former opinion editor, Emilio Palacio, were sentenced to three years in prison and the payment of $40 million of compensation to the Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa.

To derail the process, the attorneys of the Guayaquil newspaper challenged the magistrates that perform the trial in the Second Criminal Chamber. Yesterday at 16:49 (GMT) the defense made the request of challenge 14 minutes after it was notified about the failing about the first challenge.

Meanwhile the attorneys of Correa stated that El Universo lawyers “committed an immoral act” with the purpose of alter the judicial process. Immediately afterwards Correa’s attorneys asked the prosecutors to start investigations against those that presented the challenge. (AV)