{"id":213291,"date":"2023-03-04T18:01:02","date_gmt":"2023-03-04T10:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=213291"},"modified":"2023-03-04T18:01:02","modified_gmt":"2023-03-04T10:01:02","slug":"ex-ecuador-president-put-under-house-arrest-on-graft-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=213291","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Ecuador president put under house arrest on graft charges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thesundaily.my\/world\/ecuador-prosecutors-request-house-arrest-for-ex-president-CG10707243\"><img src=\"https:\/\/www.thesundaily.my\/binrepository\/lp7vipmj3rnixn3tknkl3hcyxa_3013354_20230304170632.jpg\" alt=\"Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno. REUTERSPIX\" title=\"Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno. REUTERSPIX\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>Len\u00edn Moreno<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>QUITO, March 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; <strong>Former Ecuador president Lenin Moreno was put under house arrest Friday for allegedly receiving bribes from a Chinese firm in exchange for a contract to build the country&#8217;s largest hydroelectric dam, authorities said.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Moreno, who was president from 2017 to 2021, and 36 others are suspected of receiving about $76m (sh282b) &nbsp;in bribes, &#8220;the highest amount prosecuted for acts of corruption&#8221; in Ecuador, according to the prosecutor&#8217;s office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The alleged corruption network operated from 2009 to 2018 around the construction of the Coco Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant, a $2.3m (sh8.5b) project granted to the Chinese company Sinohydro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ecuador&#8217;s Attorney General Diana Salazar requested &#8220;preventive detention&#8221; for all those under investigation. House arrest was granted to 14 of them, including Moreno, due to their advanced age, her office said on Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Moreno, 69, has denied the corruption charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I do not have, nor have I had, any responsibility in the contracting&#8221; of the Coca Codo Sinclair project, he tweeted on Feb 22.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The prosecutor&#8217;s office said Moreno&#8217;s family group received about $660,000 from the corruption ring. His wife, daughter, brothers and sisters-in-law have also been implicated in the investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The defendants face up to seven years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Moreno was vice president under former president Rafael Correa from 2007 to 2013 before the pair fell out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Correa was granted asylum in Belgium after he was convicted in absentia of graft and sentenced to eight years in jail. &#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Len\u00edn Moreno QUITO, March 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; Former Ecuador president Lenin Moreno was put under house arrest Friday for allegedly receiving bribes from a Chinese firm in exchange for a contract to build the country&#8217;s largest hydroelectric dam, authorities said. Moreno, who was president from 2017 to 2021, and 36 others are suspected of receiving [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":213295,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213291"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=213291"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":213296,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213291\/revisions\/213296"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/213295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=213291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=213291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=213291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}