Ecuador's former Vice President Jorge Glas was on Monday released from prison for the second time after a local judge approved alternative corrective measures in lieu of a custodial sentence for corruption charges.
Judge Emerson Curipallo from the province of Santo Domingo said Glas' rights had been violated by delays in resolving a request his defense put forward for him to receive prison benefits allowing him to serve out his sentence outside prison.
Dozens of supporters cheered the moment Glas left the prison in the capital of Quito late on Monday, according to a Reuters witness.
Glas, 53, was sentenced to six years in prison in 2017 after he was found guilty for receiving bribes from the Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht in exchange for awarding government contracts to the company. He was given a separate eight-year prison sentence in 2020 for using money from contractors to finance electoral campaigns for ex-President Rafael Correa's political movement.
This is the second time that Glas, a former minister and vice president in Correa's government between 2007 and 2017, has been released by judge's order. Though Glas was released from prison in April this year, he was sent back to jail just a month later after the decision was annulled.
His defense has sought to have him serve his two sentences concurrently, which would allow him to benefit from a pre-release mechanism having served part of the prison sentence.
(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia; Additional reporting by Tito Correa; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)
