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Thirteen years after acquiring seven Dhruv helicopters, the Prosecutor’s Office is asking for a date and time to file charges for embezzlement.
Nine months after a judge of the National Court of Justice (CNJ), Iván León, gave way to the order to reopen the previous investigation for the crime of embezzlement related to the acquisition of Dhruv helicopters in In 2008, the Attorney General, Diana Salazar, asked the National Court to set a date and time to file charges against an as yet unreported number of suspects.
At the end of a hearing of about 30 minutes, held on December 23, 2020, And in which the Public Prosecutor’s Office requested that this previous investigation be reopened, then Judge León found the motivation presented by the prosecutor adequate and accepted the order to continue investigating the crime of embezzlement classified in article 257 of the Penal Code.
Ministry of Defense announces process of direct sale of Dhruv helicopters
In the previous stage of investigation Prosecutor’s Office aimed at the former Minister of Defense of the government of Rafael Correa, Javier Ponce, and 18 other people who apparently participated in the process of acquisition of seven Dhruv helicopters. Judge León specified in his ruling that the investigation deadlines ran from the day the decision was issued, that is, on December 23, 2020.
Salazar in his speech explained that on April 14, 2016, the current Attorney General, Gal Chiriboga, requested the presidency of the CNJ the file of the complaint, Assuring that at that date there were no elements to initiate a criminal charge and that the report of the Comptroller General of the State (CGE) was also necessary.
The report with indications of criminal responsibility of the Comptroller’s Office (CGE), which was a procedibility requirement in 2016, was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court in July 2019.
For prosecutor Diana Salazar, among the facts that motivated the request to reopen the case is what in the investigation by the assassination of former Air Force commander Jorge Gabella it has been determined to be related to the cause analyzing possible irregularities in the acquisition of the seven Dhruv helicopters.
National Court judge orders immobilization for 180 days of Dhruv helicopters seeking to be sold by the Ministry of Defense
In addition, there have been indications that irregular acts have been committed in the recruitment process, such as delays and failures in spare parts for Dhruv helicopters. The final report of the Multi-Party Commission of the National Assembly was also presented, which in its conclusions on this negotiation would point to the existence of unclear processes in procurement, interference for procurement, reports from the Comptroller’s Office that suffer from precision and lack of transparency in procurement.
Prosecutor Salazar assured in the due diligence that he calls for the reopening of the investigation in order to avoid impunity and seeking procedural and historical truth.
Although the Public Prosecutor’s Office has not reported the total number of people against whom it will file charges, nor who they are, it is understood that if the order by hearing is made to the CNJ among the defendants there are one or more characters who would enjoy National Court jurisdiction.
On April 9, as part of the same case, CNJ judge Luis Rivera ordered the immobilization, for 180 days, of three Dhruv helicopters, which were announced to enter on sale from the Ministry of Defense. The sale was announced by the then Minister of Defense, Oswaldo Jarrín, on April 7. (I)