An Ecuadoran lawmaker has been sentenced in absentia to 18 months in prison for slandering President Rafael Correa, with the judge issuing a warrant for his arrest.
Opposition member Clever Jimenez was ruled to have defamed Correa by filing charges against the leader in June 2011 for crimes against humanity, stemming from a controversial 2010 police mutiny that left 10 people dead.
The attorney for Jimenez told AFP yesterday that his client was traveling to the southeastern Amazonian province of Chinchipe, which he represents in the National Assembly.
He "is relaxed," said attorney Julio Cesar Samargo and "is there with the people that elected him."
Ecuador's courts rejected Jimenez's original case and Correa countersued -- the country's strict freedom of expression rules mean such statements can be punished by law.
In an earlier interview with AFP, Jimenez said the government wants to lock him up so that he will not be able to denounce official corruption.
In 2012 Correa won a defamation case against the daily El Universo de Guayaquil that saw three top newspaper staff sentenced to jail time and ordered to pay a USD 40 million fine.
Correa however issued a pardon and the case was dropped.
