Three newspaper executives, columnist sentenced, fined

QUITO, Ecuador (AP):

Ecuador's highest court yesterday upheld a criminal libel verdict favouring President Rafael Correa, sentencing three newspaper executives and a columnist to three years in prison each and ordering them to pay a total of $42 million in damages.

The defendants, joined by international press freedom and human rights groups, had called the case an attempt by Correa to bankrupt the country's leading opposition newspaper, El Universo, and part of a concerted campaign to stifle free speech and silence critics.

After a 13¹/²-hour hearing on Wednesday, the three-judge panel of the National Court of Justice deliberated nearly two hours before ratifying the verdict, which is not subject to appeal.

Correa was present both for the ruling and during Wednesday's entire hearing.

The defendants had called the case a farce and accused Correa of subverting the legal system, including allowing his attorney to write last July's original lower-court ruling.

Groups including Human Rights Watch have decried criminal defamation laws such as Ecuador's, which they say give politicians such as Correa immense power to crush dissent.