2024-08-19 16:21:52
During the hearing, it was indicated that Helive Angulo, alias ‘Estimado’, admitted to the Prosecutor’s Office that he paid USD 10,000 to the former president of the Judiciary, Wilman Terán.
On the third day of abbreviated proceedings in the Metástasis case, it was the turn of Helive Angulo, known by the alias ‘Estimado’. He has been identified as the trusted man and administrator of the assets of Leandro Norero, ‘El Patrón’.
Before the hearing began, the associate judge Manuel Cabrera – who is in charge of the speedy trials in this case for organized crime – recalled that Angulo is a protected witness of the Prosecutor’s Office, so there is a legal prohibition on photographing or recording him from the front.
Wilson Toainga, the acting attorney general, was the first to speak. The official explained that the maximum sentence in the Metastasis case is 10 years in prison. Therefore, according to the rules of the Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code (COIP), the application of an abbreviated procedure is feasible.
However, due to the acceptance of guilt by ‘Estimado’ and his collaboration with the process, the Prosecutor’s Office, through Toainga, requested three years and four months in prison for the accused. Of these, he has already spent seven months in prison.
In addition, the Public Prosecutor’s Office requested that a fine of USD 5,520 be imposed, as well as the payment of full material reparation in favor of the State Attorney General’s Office (PGE), as the victim.
The compensation proposed by the Prosecutor’s Office, and accepted by Angulo, is USD 11,040. In addition, as non-material compensation, the publication of the operative part of the sentence in a media outlet and a public apology ceremony are proposed.
The State is also asked to hand over the items seized in operations related to Angulo: four Apple mobile devices, an Android phone, four USD 10 bills, 10 USD 100 bills, three ballistic protection panels, a computer, among other items.
USD 10,000 for Terán
During the hearing, prosecutor Toainga presented the minutes of negotiations between Angulo and the Prosecutor’s Office. He also mentioned an effective cooperation agreement, which will also be evaluated in the hearing.
Toainga described ‘Estimado’ as a trusted man and collaborator of Leandro Norero, a drug trafficker who is the central point of the Metástasis case, although he is not a party to the proceedings, since he was murdered in October 2022 in the Latacunga prison.
After Norero’s death, the Prosecutor’s Office found the cell phones that the criminal used from his cell, in the temporary area. According to the theory of the case, Norero chatted with his lawyers, partners, judges, prosecutors and others involved in the alleged judicial corruption network.
Angulo admitted using Threema with the users ‘Estimado’ and ‘Larry’, who were Norero’s main interlocutors.
In those messages, which were read by Toainga, Norero gave instructions to Angulo on how to handle the cases and his assets.
They also planned the legal strategy together with lawyers Cristian Romero, alias ‘Global Pax’, and Xavier Novillo, alias ‘Novita’, other defendants in the Metástasis case.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, Helive Angulo was in charge of coordinating, managing and paying bribes to judicial officials. Toainga mentioned magistrates in Cotopaxi, Guayas and Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, who were also linked to the case.
However, the Public Prosecutor’s Office emphasized the attempts to recruit judges to the National Court of Justice (CNJ). In this case, the coordination was done with Alex Palacios, another of the defendants, who was an advisor to this body and worked closely with Wilman Terán, alias ‘El Diablo’, former president of the Judicial Council (CJ).
Toainga explained that in order to ‘buy time’, through the unjustified delay of the cases involving Norero and his family, Angulo accepted that he paid USD 10,000 to Terán, who at that time was part of the National Court of Justice.
Source: PRIMICIAS