Fidelia Soriwei, Abuja
Ecuador’s former President Lenin Moreno has been sentenced to five years in prison for accepting bribes linked to the construction of the country’s largest hydroelectric power project.
The ruling was delivered by an Ecuadoran court on Friday in a corruption case involving the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric dam, which was constructed by Chinese company Sinohydro.
Prosecutors said Moreno was among 20 people convicted in the case and alleged that Sinohydro paid about $76 million in bribes, equivalent to roughly four per cent of the project’s construction cost.
Moreno, 73, served as Ecuador’s president from 2017 to 2021 after previously serving as vice-president under former President Rafael Correa between 2007 and 2013.
He later broke with Correa after succeeding him as president, moving towards the political right and strengthening Ecuador’s relationship with the United States.
Moreno has rejected the allegations and said he would appeal the conviction. Following Friday’s ruling, he maintained that he had never received “a single cent” from Sinohydro.
He attributed the prosecution to what he called “the Correa regime,” alleging that Correa, who is also serving a corruption conviction while living in Belgium, “promised to take revenge on me.”
The court also convicted Moreno’s wife and other relatives, sentencing them to nearly three years in prison for complicity. Prosecutors had sought a six-and-a-half-year sentence for the former president.
Two former managers of the Coca Codo Sinclair power plant were also among those convicted in the bribery case.
Moreno, who is paraplegic, previously served as the United Nations special envoy on disability issues before and after his presidency.
