Ecuador has convicted an instigator of the murder of a presidential candidate.

The Ecuadorian Criminal Court sentenced the instigator of the murder of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio to 34 years and 8 months in prison, while four other accomplices received 12 years each, the country’s prosecutor’s office said.
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“Based on the evidence presented by the Ecuadorian Prosecutor’s Office, the court unanimously convicted Carlos Edwin A. L. as an instigator of the aggravated murder of Fernando Villavicencio and sentenced him to 34 years and 8 months in prison,” the prosecutor’s office said in X.

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During last year’s election campaign in Ecuador, the presidential candidate of the Construye political movement, Fernando Villavicencio, as well as the leader of the Civil Revolution political movement in the Ecuadorian province of Esmeraldas, Pedro Briones, were killed. Villavicencio was shot dead in August immediately after meeting with supporters.

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Two months after Villavicencio’s murder, seven people accused in the case, including six Colombian citizens, were killed in Ecuadorian prisons.

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According to the Ecuadorian prosecutor’s office, in addition to the instigator, two men and two women were recognized as accomplices and sentenced to 12 years in prison and large fines.