"Sentencing caps yearlong investigation into abuse, disappearance of four children in Guayaquil amid crime crackdown. A court in Ecuador has sentenced 11 soldiers to 34 years in prison for their role in abusing and disappearing four children from the city of Guayaquil as part of a country-wide crackdown on crime. The sentencing on Monday capped a yearlong investigation into the missing children, who had been last seen on December 8, 2024, walking towards a sports field near their neighbourhood."
"The charred bodies of Steven Medina, Nehemias Arboleda, and brothers Ismael and Josue Arroyo were found weeks later, on December 31, in a rural swampy area. The court also sentenced five soldiers who collaborated with the prosecution in the case to two and a half years behind bars. The military had maintained that the boys, ages 11 to 15, were criminals who had been detained and were alive when they were released."
"Several soldiers told prosecutors the boys had been beaten, subject to mock executions, and forced to strip before being abandoned naked in the remote and dangerous rural area of Taura. The soldiers were acquitted of killing the boys. The patrol abandoned the minors in that area, knowing it was dangerous, desolate, and abandoned, Judge Jovanny Suarez said in the ruling on Monday. The defence maintained that prosecutors did not prevent conclusive evidence."
Eleven soldiers were sentenced to 34 years in prison for abusing and disappearing four children from Guayaquil amid a crime crackdown. Five soldiers who collaborated with prosecutors received two-and-a-half-year prison terms. The boys, aged 11 to 15, were last seen December 8, 2024; their charred bodies were found December 31 in a rural swampy area. Several soldiers told prosecutors the boys were beaten, subjected to mock executions, forced to strip and then abandoned naked in the remote Taura area. Judges acquitted soldiers of killing the boys but ruled the patrol knowingly abandoned them in dangerous terrain. The case triggered nationwide outrage and criticism of President Daniel Noboa's Phoenix Plan.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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