Former Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno and the former Chinese ambassador to Quito appealed to Ecuador’s supreme court on Thursday, seeking to overturn the five‑year prison sentences imposed last week in a US$76 million bribery case.
Moreno was found guilty of bribery by a three‑judge panel of Ecuador’s National Court of Justice for his role in awarding contracts for the nation’s biggest hydroelectric plant to a Chinese state‑owned contractor.
The court unanimously concluded that, while serving as vice‑president from 2007 to 2013—before his election as president in 2017—Moreno leveraged his office to obtain financing for the Coca Codo Sinclair dam, constructed by Sinohydro, a subsidiary of the Chinese state‑owned PowerChina group.
Moreno remains free in Ecuador and has not been taken into custody; should the conviction stand, he would serve his sentence under house arrest due to his paraplegic condition.
The justices will consider his appeal on September 7; if they grant it, the prison term would be suspended and substituted with measures such as regular reporting obligations.
“I have never taken a penny from Sinohydro, so stop accusing me of wrongdoing,” Moreno told journalists after the verdict was announced.
