Ecuador court sentences ex-President Moreno to five years in bribery case

QUITO, Ecuador — A court in Ecuador has sentenced former President Lenin Moreno, who held office from 2017 to 2021, to five years in prison on charges of accepting bribes from a Chinese company that built the country's largest hydroelectric dam. Prosecutors said 20 people, including Moreno, were found guilty in connection with the Coca Codo Sinclair project, developed by China's Sinohydro. Prosecutors told the court that Sinohydro had paid roughly $76 million in bribes, equivalent to about 4 percent of the dam project's cost. They had sought a six-and-a-half-year sentence for Moreno. The alleged corruption took place between 2007 and 2013, when Moreno served as vice president under socialist former President Rafael Correa before succeeding him with Correa's backing. Moreno, 73, said he would appeal the verdict. Several relatives, including his wife, received prison terms of about three years in the same case. No further details on the appeal were immediately available.