Jorge Glas, the former vice president, is put on trial by an Ecuadorian judge

Former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas will go on trial for allegedly misusing public funds intended to rehabilitate areas damaged by a deadly 2016 earthquake, a judge decided Monday.

Glas is presently incarcerated after being found guilty in two previous corruption cases.

Glas and eight other former officials, some of whom are abroad, were urged to be charged in the matter by the attorney general’s office.

Glas, who oversaw the post-earthquake restoration effort for the provinces of Manabi and Esmeraldas, is accused by prosecutors of misappropriating funds for non-priority projects.

“There were indications that Glas committed embezzlement by using funds intended for reconstruction for other projects that were not related to the reconstruction in Manabi,” Judge Marco Aguirre remarked at a public hearing.

A VAT rise was one of the taxes used to raise the money.

Additionally, the prosecution alleges that the money was misappropriated to benefit managers and contractors working on the reconstruction.

Following a raid on the Mexican embassy in Quito last year that resulted in the termination of diplomatic relations between Ecuador and Mexico, Glas, who was Rafael Correa’s vice president from 2013 to 2017, was taken into custody by Ecuadorean police.

In a post on X, Glas’ attorney Sonia Vera claimed that the decision was evidence of “the use of criminal proceedings as a tool of political persecution, in open violation of due process.”

She went on to say that there was no proof of embezzlement, which requires the theft of public monies for private gain or the advantage of other parties, or of damage to the national treasury.