Former Ecuadorian vice president Jorge Glas tried to commit suicide earlier this week in a prison in Guayaquil, former president Rafael Correa said in a publication on X, something that was confirmed by Glas' lawyer, Sonia Vera.
The information contradicts the version of the SNAI prison agency, which indicated that Glas was hospitalized on Monday because he refused to eat the food provided to him in prison and became ill, but He was discharged a day later and returned to prison.
“We have confirmed that the medical emergency was a suicide attempt. He has not eaten anything and is on a hunger strike,” Correa pointed out on the social networkinformation that Vera later verified Reuters.
Vera had said earlier that Glas's hunger strike is in protest of his arrest, after confirming that they had had contact with him.
The former vice president, already convicted twice of corruption and now facing new charges, was arrested on Friday after police stormed the Mexican embassy in Quito, where he had been since December.
The arrest capped a week of rising tensions between Mexico and Ecuador, after Quito declared the Mexican ambassador persona non grata, citing “unfortunate” comments by leftist Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Ecuador's government has said it has evidence that the former president planned to escape, although it has not provided details.
Glas' lawyers said this week that they filed a habeas corpus petition to secure his freedom. The hearing will be on Thursday afternoon in Quito, Vera said.
Videos from inside the embassy, broadcast Tuesday during López Obrador's daily news conference, showed a door violently opened and a man, who appeared to be Glas, being carried out, his arms and legs raised by police.
In the clip included in his lawyer's post on X, Glas accused the police of abusing him during the arrest in Quito. “I tried to stand up but I couldn't because of the beating they had given me,” Glas said in the video.
There was no immediate response from the Ecuadorian police to questions sent by Reuters.
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