Ecuador court postpones Bucaram verdict after former president’s health emergency

A court in Ecuador postponed its verdict against former President Abdalá Bucaram for the fifth time after another hospital admission prevented him from joining the hearing.

Bucaram, who was president from 1996 to 1997, is on trial with his son Jacobo and two other people for alleged organized crime. The judges could not read the decision because the former president was unable to connect and hear it. They rescheduled the hearing for Thursday.

Bucaram had left hospital days earlier after undergoing emergency surgery for heart problems and spending time in intensive care. His lawyers told the judges that his recovery had not gone well and that he had been admitted to another hospital on Monday.

The court sent a search team and a police officer to the hospital. The officer initially said he could not confirm that Bucaram was there because doctors and administrative staff provided no information. Another son, Dalo Bucaram, joined the virtual hearing from the hospital and said his father was in intensive care. He also said the officer had verified the former president’s presence.

“We have the entire medical record. I handed him the admission bill, and he was able to verify that the whole family is here. We do not know my father’s state of health,” Dalo Bucaram, a former presidential candidate, told the court.

Prosecutors allege that between March and August 2020, the defendants collaborated with a criminal structure that made money by selling 21,000 COVID-19 tests and other medical supplies during the health emergency. Investigators say two Israelis moved the tests under the custody of traffic officers to the former president’s home. One of the two was killed in 2020 at Guayaquil’s Litoral Penitentiary. Prosecutors also say Bucaram stored masks and lancets there.

Fifty experts and witnesses testified in the trial, which began on April 11 of the previous year after repeated postponements since 2022. Ecuador’s organized-crime law carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, with possible increases for aggravating circumstances.

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We have the entire medical record. I handed him the admission bill, and he was able to verify that the whole family is here. We do not know my father’s state of health.