Ecuador's ex-VP Glas evacuated from prison after attempted killing, lawyer says

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador — Ecuador's former Vice President Jorge Glas has been evacuated from prison after an attempt on his life, his lawyer said on Sunday (Jan 5), blaming the government for the situation.

Sonia Gabriela Vera called for the United Nations and other international organisations to intervene after what she called an "attempted assassination" of Glas in La Roca prison.

The attack "is the result of a State that has condemned him to danger, torture and slow death," Vera said on X, commenting on a post that claimed Glas had been taken from the prison amid a threat on his life from mutinying prisoners.

"His emergency evacuation confirms what we have denounced time and again: they are deliberately playing with his life," Vera added. "If anything happens to him, it will be a crime of the State."

Ecuador's SNAI prisons agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Glas was detained in April after Ecuadorean security forces stormed Mexico's embassy in Quito, where he was holed up after seeking asylum.

While Glas' supporters say the arrest is politically motivated, the ex-vice president has been convicted for corruption on two other occasions.

Glas also faces charges of misusing funds collected to aid reconstruction of coastal Manabi province after a devastating 2016 earthquake.

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