Ecuador ex-president sentenced to 5 years for corruption

An Ecuadoran court on Friday sentenced ex-president Lenin Moreno to five years in prison for accepting bribes from a Chinese company that built the country's biggest hydroelectric dam.

The prosecution said on X that Moreno, who governed from 2017 to 2021, was among 20 people convicted in the case involving the construction of the Coca Codo Sinclair dam by China's Sinohydro.

Moreno was vice-president under socialist president Rafael Correa at the time of the alleged corruption, between 2007 and 2013.

He succeeded Correa, with the latter's backing, but later fell out with his mentor by shifting to the right and aligning himself more closely with the United States.

Moreno has already announced plans to appeal the court's ruling, which also saw his wife and other relatives sentenced to nearly three years in prison for complicity.

Prosecutors had sought a six-and-a-half-year prison term for Moreno.

The 73-year-old paraplegic, who served as the United Nations special envoy on disability issues, insisted Friday after the ruling that he had never received "a single cent" from Sinohydro.

He blamed the case on "the Correa regime," saying his former backer-turned-rival, who has also been convicted of corruption but lives in Belgium, "promised to take revenge on me."

Prosecutors say Sinohydro paid bribes totaling $76 million, around four percent of the cost of the hydroelectric project. 

Among those convicted alongside Moreno were two former managers of the power plant.