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Prosecutor questioned Correa one hour for the Singue case
Posted On 15 Mar 2018
Ecuadornews:
The former president rendered his statement through videoconference. His lawyer, Alexis Mera, denounced a political persecution against his client. Almost one hour took the prosecutor Jimena Mena to evacuate all questions to former President Rafael Correa.
The diligence is carried out for a possible crime of embezzlement, committed in the award of the Singue block, in April 2012. The meeting began at 08:00, by videoconference from the embassy of Ecuador in Belgium. In this country the former president currently resides.
The interrogation ended a few minutes after 09:00. The free, voluntary and non-sworn statement was also attended by lawyers from Petroecuador and Alexis Mera, the latter representing Correa. The diligence was reserved since the process is in the preliminary investigation stage. After the statement, Mera remained about three hours in the prosecution to review the transcript of the interrogation.
Upon leaving, she assured that the former president is to be involved in a letter about the oil field he did not read. “We do not know who did the renegotiation, which was handled by the Ministry of Non-Renewable Natural Resources that at that time was in charge of Wilson Pastor.”
The lawyer, who served as legal secretary of the presidency during the previous mandate, said that Correa is wanted to be involved, which evidences “clearly a political persecution”. The Office of the Comptroller made a report to the report issued in August 2017 with indications of criminal responsibility against former Vice President Jorge Glas, who was then in charge of the strategic sectors and another 28 people in charge of the bidding process.
The surrogate controller, Pablo Celi, indicated that based on new information found, he included Correa among those responsible, since the former president had known about the negotiation that supposedly harmed the State.
Field
Tenth oil round
The allocation of the Singue field was arranged by the Minister of Natural Resources, Wilson Pastor, in 2012, after the tenth oil round was closed, to the companies Digoil and Gente oil, which would have overexploited the deposit.
28 people, in addition to the former president and former vice president were mentioned in the report.
Government defended tender
The former vice president, when he was in office, said the field was contracted for $ 27 million and generated $ 120 million. (I)
