2023-06-13 23:10:39
The Comptroller’s Office administratively sanctioned seven former officials for the Gabela case. Photo: File / THE COMMERCE
The comptrollership administratively sanctioned seven former officials of the extinct Ministry of Justice, Human Rights and Cults for the management of the information of the Interinstitutional Committee, that was created in the government of Rafael Correa to investigate the assassination of General Jorge Gabela.
This Tuesday, June 13, 2023, it was learned that on the list of sanctioned former officials is the former Minister of Justice, Lenin Lara, This measure was adopted due to the documentary handling that occurred during the investigation of the crime of the former commander of the Ecuadorian Air Force (FAE).
Why was this sanction applied?
On February 9, 2023, the Constitutional Court (CC) issued a ruling stating that the General Prosecutor’s Office and the Comptroller’s Office “carry out an investigation to undertake the sanctioning actions corresponding to former officials, who at the time were responsible for handling the report of the Inter-institutional Committee”.
In addition, the CC ordered that both entities have a period of five months to send a document stating the measures taken.
Therefore, until July 2023, the Prosecutor’s Office and the State Comptroller General have a term to investigate and apply the sanctions for those public officials.
Another provision of the Constitutional Court
The sentence of this constitutional entity, issued on February 9, 2023, also ordered that Patricia Ochoa, Gabela’s widow, be handed over the third product of the report made by the expert Roberto Meza and who got lost in the hands of the committee of ministers of Correísmo.
In order to obtain the document, the CC ruling ordered the Presidency of the Republic to form a commission to contact the expert and thus obtain that report again. The expert document, which was lost, would have included the names of the alleged masterminds of the crime against Gabela.
In February 2019, the Comptroller determined that the third product, prepared by the expert Roberto Meza, It was delivered over the counter, in June 2013, to the then Ministry of Justice.
However, The Comptroller’s Office assured that the officials of that State portfolio never prepared a formal and final receipt delivery certificate for the third product. In addition, this document should have been in charge of officials of the Legal Department of the Ministry of Justice, but from 2013 to 2017 there is no documentation on which person had custody.
The death of General Gabela
In February 2010, Jorge Gabela, former commander of the Ecuadorian Air Force, denounced alleged irregularities in the acquisition of seven Dhruv helicopters. The former officer opposed the purchase of these aircraft, but their acquisition was finalized after his departure.
Ten months after denouncing an alleged corruption in the purchase of the helicopters, General Gabela was shot at the level of the clavicle. On December 19, 2010, the former military chief was shot inside his home in Guayaquil.
On December 29, 2010, Gabela died in a Guayaquil hospital. He died after two operations that sought to save his life.
More news:
Visit our portals:
#Comptroller #sanctioned #officials #Ministry #Justice #Gabela #case