Expert opinion issued on occurrence of lawfare in Ecuador

On October 18, 2018, Lawfare issued an opinion on the occurrence of Lawfare in Ecuador. These are the conclusions and suggestions:

“1. There are indications of the existence of a typical case of lawfare in the way in which the then Vice President JORGE GLAS ESPINEL has been dismissed and, especially, the misinterpretation that has been made of the most favorable criminal law principle.

2. These signs have greater significance even within a Latin American context: a) by the serious background in Brazil with the illegitimate destitution of former President DILMA ROUSSEFF, b) the illegal imprisonment of LULA DA SILVA in a clear violation of procedural, constitutional, and conventional guarantees aggravated by the lack of adaptation in their internal order of the international obligation to ensure their electoral rights as recognized by the United Nations Human Rights Committee, and c) certain legal proceedings brought against the former President of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

3. The judicial proceedings against GLAS ESPINEL and CORREA DELGADO in progress, in our opinion, need to be observed simultaneously and permanently through the concept of external observers.

4. The simultaneous external observation with direct access to the judicial proceedings will allow in a subsequent report to concretely detect the existence of judicial pieces that could or not be defined – along with other elements already indicated – as typical supposed lawfare”.

The special rapporteur for the opinion was Prof. Pablo Ángel Gutiérrez Colantuono and the function of independent observer was carried out by Prof. Jacopo Paffarini. The work was coordinated by Valeska Teixeira Zanin Martins, Rafael Valim and Rafael Pereira Ferreira.