Five jailed over assassination of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio

Five people have been jailed over the assassination of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, who was killed by gunmen on motorcycles last year.

Villavicencio, 59, was a former journalist and killed on 9 August as he left a school in Ecuador’s capital, Quito, after a campaign rally. Thirteen people were injured.

On Friday, two people who were described as instigators were each sentenced to 34 years and eight months in prison, and three accomplices were each jailed for 12 years.

Prosecutors accused at least two of those tried of belonging to the Los Lobos crime gang, among 22 criminal gangs designated as terrorists by President Daniel Noboa in January.

According to the prosecutor’s office, one of the instigators, Carlos Angulo, alias “Invisible”, coordinated the murder from a prison where he was held in Ecuador and gave instructions by videoconference to another person for the execution, which was recorded in their mobile phones. The latter has not been tried.

Laura Castillo, the other instigator, was described as being in charge of providing the gunmen with logistical elements including motorcycles and money.

The three accomplices – Erick Ramírez, Víctor Flores and Alexandra Chimbo – were in charge of alerting the actual killers of the victim’s movements, prosecutors said.

The prosecutor’s office had requested the maximum sentence for the five defendants.

The sentences for Angulo and Castillo included a compensation payment of $100,000 by each to the politician’s family. The other three defendants were ordered to pay $33,000 each.

As the judges announced the sentence, family and friends of Villavicencio demonstrated in Quito carrying posters, his photographs and flags.

Villavicencio’s journalism exposed corruption and connections between organised crime and politicians and he had previously reported receiving threats, but authorities have never said anything about the motive for the killing.

A total of 13 people were accused in the case, including several Colombians who, after being arrested, were murdered last October in prisons in Guayaquil and Quito where they were being held in pre-trial detention.

The ruling, read out by Milton Maroto, one of the court’s three judges, can be appealed against by both the prosecution and the defence.

Prosecutors are conducting a separate investigation into who requested the murder.

With Associated Press and Reuters in Quito