A judge determined that Jorge Glas's arrest at the Mexican embassy in Quito was arbitrary. But she did not release him because he was serving a sentence for corruption.
Glas is being held in a maximum security prison in the port city of Guayaquil, where he has said he is on a hunger strike. The police raid on the Mexican Embassy led to a crisis with the government of that country, which broke off relations with Ecuador. The action has been condemned and questioned by the international community, including the U.N. and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in the Americas (OAS). The former vice president has yet to serve the entire eight-year prison sentence ordered by sentences of the National Court in two cases of corruption, but he is also being investigated in another case for misappropriation of public funds in two provinces after an earthquake in 2016. The former official, via telematics from prison, recounted how he was detained and assured that the police officers mistreated him and kicked and kneed him.