Three experts will investigate the Gabela case

Ecuadornews:

The expert Roberto Meza will return to the country to work in an investigationrelated to the murder of the former head of the FAE, Jorge Gabela, in 2010.Yesterday, November 19, 2018, Meza confirmed to this newspaper that last weekhe had a rapprochement with the prosecutor Angel Cujilema, who leads the Gabelacase, and saw an interest of the Prosecutor’s Office to hire him as aresearcher.

“The prosecutor (Cujilema) asked me if I would be willing to travel and be an expert in this investigation, and I indicated yes.”

In January, he plans to return to Ecuador from Brazil, where he resides. Although there is still no definite date for his visit, he announced that he will come with two more experts and another person, who will be in charge of the contract with the Prosecutor’s Office.

The job will be to collect all the evidence and documentation that prosecutor Cujilema requested to clarify the murder of Gabela. “The expertise will be based on reconstructing what we already did, with the elements we had, including the motive for the crime, the masterminds and how the tax investigation was carried out.”

This group of experts will have between 15 and 20 days to work on the subject. Meza was hired by the State in 2013. In July of that year, he delivered the third product to the Interinstitutional Committee, which a year before had been created by Rafael Correa, to investigate this death.

Currently, the third product is missing. In this letter it was mentioned that the murder of the former chief of the FAE was related to organized crime and the possible intellectual authors of the deadly attack were mentioned.

The idea of Meza resuming the investigation was finalized by a request from the Multiparty Occasional Commission of the National Assembly, made up of seven legislators. On Friday (November 16) they approved the final report, where information is gathered about the assassination of Gabela.

One of the conclusions is that what happened with the military could be a state crime and that the murder was related to the complaints he made about the purchase of seven Dhruv helicopters.

Therefore, César Litardo, president of this Commission, said that the creation of a permanent oversight will be proposed, which will be in charge of monitoring compliance with the 10 recommendations established in the document.

This report of the Legislative will be sent today to the Plenary of the Assembly. After its approval, it will be remitted to the Office of the Prosecutor and will serve as one more input in the investigation.

The widow of Gabela, Patricia Ochoa, said that the expert Meza told her the names of the people behind her husband’s death. Among them he mentions “people in uniform, arms sellers and state officials”. Ochoa also claims to have received 15 calls from two different cell numbers. In addition, she says that they have stamped her house twice.

Her daughter answered and the caller identified himself as Eduardo Franco Loor, lawyer of former Vice President Jorge Glas. Yesterday, November 19, this newspaper contacted him and said he has never called the widow of Gabela. On February 4, 2015, the then Minister of Justice, Ledy Zúñiga, said that this death was related to common crime.

Ochoa says that she was deceived by the official and that the same document, which had no signature, rested with the Prosecutor’s Office. This newspaper contacted Zúñiga, but did not respond to the written request that was sent to him.

In context

In June, President Lenin Moreno declassified the information about the general’s death. In the Interinstitutional Committee, created by Correa in 2012, there were the Ministers of Defense, Interior, Justice, Secretary of Transparency, among others.

Eight years have elapsed since the crime of former commander of the FAE February 2010 Jorge Gabela, former commander of the Ecuadorian Air Force, reported alleged problems in the acquisition of seven Dhruv helicopters to the company HAL.

December 2010

The former military chief was shot inside his house in Guayaquil. After what happened, the Government created an Interinstitutional Commission to clarify this violent act.

February 2015

The then Minister of Justice, Ledy Zúñiga, exhibited four pages with a part of the conclusions of the Gabela Report and said that the officer’s crime was robbery.

November 2018

Theearly morning of Friday 16, the Occasional Committee of the Assembly issued areport and did not rule out that the crime is a state crime. The case will goto the State Prosecutor’s Office.  (I)

Source: https://www.elcomercio.com/actualidad/peritos-investigacion-caso-gabela-fiscalia.html