Quito, Aug 18 (EFE).- An Ecuadorian court sentenced one of the two murderers of prosecutor Édgar Escobar to 34 years and 8 months in prison, shot to death in September 2022 in Guayaquil, in front of the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office from Guayas.
The Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement that the sentence was unanimous by the judges, who also imposed a fine of $675,000 on the murderer, in addition to a comprehensive reparation of $500,000 for the victim’s relatives.
In the trial, which began on April 13 and concluded on August 17, the prosecutor of the Transnational Organized Crime Unit presented 32 testimonies and 25 documentary evidence.
The murder occurred on September 19, 2022, when the murderers, aged 19 and 16, respectively, approached Escobar on a motorcycle to riddle him with shots.
The victim, who was investigating hit men, murder cases and organized crime networks, was injured by the impacts and died minutes later at the scene.
National Police personnel went to the site, collected information from the witnesses and began a pursuit until they reached the attackers and detained them on the steps of Cerro Santa Ana, in Guayaquil, where they found a pistol and ammunition in their possession.
The legal situation of the other detainee –a minor under 16 years of age–, the alleged perpetrator of the shots that ended the life of prosecutor Escobar, was resolved in November 2022, when another judge issued a sentence of 8 years of institutional internment, for the murder crime.
Ecuador is immersed in a wave of violence that the authorities attribute to organized crime, where gangs dedicated mainly to drug trafficking have become strong in the coastal zone, through which a large amount of cocaine produced mainly in Colombia passes to be removed by the Ecuadorian ports to Europe and North America.
In just five years, Ecuador has gone from 5.8 to 25.62 intentional homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2022, the highest figure in its history, and experts predict that this year it could end with a rate of around 40 homicides per every 100,000 inhabitants. EFE
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