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Facing impeachment for corruption, Ecuador’s president
dissolves congress
Issued on: 17/05/2023 - 15:40
Text by: NEWS WIRES
Ecuadoran President Guillermo Lasso, who is weathering impeachment proceedings in congress over alleged corruption, issued a decree Wednesday dissolving the legislature.
The decree released abruptly by the unpopular conservative president’s office states that Lasso is dissolving the opposition-led National Assembly “due to a grave political crisis and national commotion.”
In dissolving congress, Lasso also called upon the National Electoral Council (CNE) to call new elections.
It is the first time a president in Ecuador has dissolved the legislature.
By law, within seven days of the publication of this decree, the CNE must convene new presidential and legislative elections to finish out the current term.
Until a new National Assembly is sworn in, Lasso is able to rule by decree, with checks by the constitutional court.
Lasso’s impeachment trial opened in congress on Tuesday, amid a spike in violence related to drug trafficking in the South American country and widespread anger over the rising cost of living. Lasso is very unpopular.
The majority left-wing opposition has accused Lasso of knowing about alleged corruption in state owned companies, in which his brother-in-law Danilo Carrera and a businessman accused of drug trafficking have been implicated.
Speaking on state television Wednesday, Lasso defended his decision to dissolve the National Assembly.
“It is a democratic decision not only because it is constitutional but because it returns to the Ecuadoran people the possibility to decide,” Lasso said, referencing the new elections.
Ecuador’s congress tried to impeach Lasso in June, at a time of violent protests against the rising cost of living, but came up 12 votes short.
A similar political drama played out late last year in neighboring Peru.
Then President Pedro Castillo, also facing corruption allegations, tried to dissolve congress in December so he could rule by decree. He was arrested the same day and is now in prison awaiting trial on charges of rebellion.
(AFP)
French court upholds three-year sentence for ex-president
Sarkozy in wiretapping case
Issued on: 17/05/2023 - 07:58
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy (L) arrives at the courthouse with his lawyer Jacqueline Laffont
for the appeal hearing of a corruption trial at Paris courthouse on May 17, 2023. © Bertrand Guay, AFP
Text by: NEWS WIRES
A French appeals court on Wednesday upheld a prison sentence of three years, including two suspended, against former president Nicolas Sarkozy for corruption and influence peddling.
The court ruled he should serve a one-year detention sentence at home with an electronic bracelet and banned him from public office for three years over his attempts to secure favours from a judge in a case uncovered by wiretapping.
Sarkozy is France's first postwar president to have been sentenced to jail.
The 68-year-old left the courtroom without making any comment, but his lawyer said they would appeal before the Court of Cassation, France's highest appeals court.
"Sarkozy is innocent... We will not give up this fight," said lawyer Jacqueline Laffont.
Sarkozy, who served one term from 2007 to 2012, has been embroiled in legal troubles ever since leaving office.
In March 2021, a court found he and his former lawyer, Thierry Herzog, had formed a "corruption pact" with Judge Gilbert Azibert to obtain and share information about a legal investigation.
The trial came after investigators wiretapped Sarkozy's two official phone lines, and discovered that he also had a third unofficial one taken out in 2014 under the name "Paul Bismuth", through which he communicated with Herzog.
The contents of these phone calls led to the 2021 corruption verdict.
The former leader contested the accusations and immediately appealed.
On the first day of the appeals hearing in December last year, Sarkozy said he had "never corrupted anybody".
His conversations with Herzog were played in court and expected to take a central role in determining Wednesday's ruling.
The appeals court also upheld the same sentences for Herzog and former judge Azibert, and banned Sarkozy's lawyer from practising for three years.
Two other cases
The so-called Bismuth case is just one of several dogging the man dubbed the "hyper-president" while in office.
Sarkozy will be retried on appeal from November 2023 in the so-called Bygmalion case, which saw him sentenced to one year in prison in a lower court.
The prosecution accused Sarkozy's team of spending nearly double the legal limit on his lavish 2012 re-election campaign, using false billing from a public relations firm called Bygmalion. He has denied any wrongdoing.
And French prosecutors on Thursday demanded he face a new trial over alleged Libyan financing of his 2007 election campaign.
Financial crimes prosecutors said Sarkozy and 12 others should face trial over allegations they sought millions of euros in financing from the regime of then Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi for the ultimately victorious campaign.
Sarkozy is accused of corruption, illegal campaign financing and concealing the embezzlement of public funds but rejects all the charges.
Investigating magistrates are to have the last word on whether or not that trial goes ahead.
Despite his legal problems, Sarkozy still enjoys considerable influence and popularity on the right of French politics and has the ear of incumbent President Emmanuel Macron.
Before Sarkozy, the only French leader to be convicted in a criminal trial was his predecessor Jacques Chirac, who received a two-year suspended sentence in 2011 for corruption over a fake jobs scandal relating to his time as Paris mayor.
(AFP)
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