Ecuador’s ex-president and Chinese ambassador seek to avoid jail over belt and road dam

Former Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno and a former Chinese ambassador to Quito are asking the country’s highest court to spare them five-year prison sentences tied to a $76 million bribery scheme.

A three-judge panel of Ecuador’s National Court of Justice convicted Moreno of bribery over contracts for the country’s largest hydroelectric project, the Coca Codo Sinclair plant. The judges unanimously found that Moreno used his position as vice-president, which he held from 2007 to 2013, to help secure financing for the project before he became president in 2017. Sinohydro, a unit of the Chinese state-owned PowerChina group, built the plant.

Moreno has not been detained and remains in Ecuador. If his conviction stands, he would serve the sentence at home because he is paraplegic. The court will hear his request on Sept. 7. If granted, the prison term would be suspended and replaced with conditions such as periodic reporting.

“I have not received a single cent from Sinohydro, so please do not come and tell me that I am an accused man,” Moreno told reporters after the ruling was read. The case involves contracts and financing for a major infrastructure project secured by a Chinese state contractor, while the court’s decision remains subject to appeal.

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I have not received a single cent from Sinohydro, so please do not come and tell me that I am an accused man.