Ecuador’s Supreme Court on Friday rejected a request by former vice president Jorge Glass to be released from prison — although it recognized that his arrest in a police raid on the Mexican embassy in Quito was “illegal” and “arbitrary” — citing his previous convictions.

Jorge Glass was seeking his release under the habeas corpus process, which allows the challenge of detention, or imprisonment, deemed illegal and/or arbitrary.

The raid last Friday (April 5) on the Mexican embassy to arrest Mr. Glass — who had an outstanding arrest warrant as part of a corruption investigation — sparked the severance of Mexico/Ecuador diplomatic relations and an international outcry .

During the proceedings, the Supreme Court (Corte Nacional de Justicia, CNJ) recognized the illegal and arbitrary nature of the arrest of the politician, who had appealed on December 17 to the Mexican embassy.

He took into account in particular that no search warrant had been issued before the police raid on the diplomatic mission.

About fifty supporters of the former vice president, who had gathered in the area where the CNJ is located, celebrated this aspect of the decision.

Mr. Glass, 54, who has already served two prison terms for corruption and is facing a third trial — he calls the prosecution political, which prosecutors deny — was taken to hospital on Monday as, according to SNAI, the prison service, he became “probably” unwell after refusing to eat. He was returned to prison on Tuesday, according to the same source.

Former president Rafael Correa (2007-2017) said via X that the reason Jorge Glass was hospitalized was a “suicide attempt,” adding that after he was arrested, he “is on hunger strike.” The former vice president’s lawyer Sonia Vera confirmed this information. In a video released by the lawyer, the former vice president complained that police officers beat him when they arrested him.

The police denied beating or torturing Mr. Glass, but acknowledged that force was used because, they said, there was resistance.

Mexico recently announced it was granting political asylum to Mr. Glass, a move Ecuador called “illegal” because he had an outstanding warrant and was considered a fugitive.

Former vice president Glass was sentenced in 2017 to serve six years in prison in a corruption case linked to the scandal involving the giant Brazilian construction company Odebrecht. He was released in 2022, following his appeal to justice. He was also sentenced in 2020 to serve eight years in prison for another corruption case. An arrest warrant was pending against him for a third corruption case, involving the misuse of public funds intended for the reconstruction of coastal towns in Manavi province after a devastating earthquake in 2016. Both he and former President Correa speak of prosecutions aimed at their political extermination.