45. In brief, the executive branch convened a popular referendum without the constitutional control of the Constitutional Court and, in exercise of the powers granted to it by that referendum, through a Provisional Council selected by it, dissolved the Constitutional Court, the Council of the Judiciary and of all the judges that it considered inadequate, as well as the head of Public Prosecutions, in addition to instructing the new Council of the Judiciary to suspend the selection process to fill the vacancies, prolonging the tenure of temporary judges. 46. In fact, to date the petition of the three councilors removed as a result of the consultation has been declared admissible in the Inter-American System and has also been pursued and explanations have been requested from the State, within the United Nations system, regarding possible judicial interference by the executive. II.3.b. The “Bribery Case” 47. The conviction in the so-called Bribery Case took place in the aforementioned circumstances, and is now being questioned before the United Nations and prompted the request by the Rapporteur. Indeed, the haste in this sentence seems to be plausible, since it would contrast with the pace of progress of other processes. In particular, the speed of the process is striking in the midst of the terrible and dramatic deadly effects of the pandemic in Ecuador and that are public knowledge. 48. The judgment in the case has been strongly criticized with solid legal arguments in a recent book by the Ecuadorian professor and defense attorney in the case, Dr. Alfonso Zambrano Pasquel. 15 49. The voluminous book highlights possible problems of consistency, change of qualification, improper application of the theory of authorship via an organized apparatus of power, insufficient reasoning of the judgment and more. Although it is a work that should be considered with due caution, given that its author is a defense attorney, the objections it formulates are quite consistent with the complaint before the United Nations agencies and on which the Rapporteur requested explanations and, in addition, the depth with which the author analyzes in detail the procedural steps and the judgment, reveal at least a serious approach in terms of the legal technique applied to criticism. 50. Among other things, it should also be added that it is extremely striking that one of the pieces of evidence in this process was a handwritten notebook by a defendant, since apparently, this strange type of documentary evidence, provided in the handwriting of industrious persons with a good memory, has also been used in the region in other cases of practice of what is usually called lawfare, that is, alleged judicial set-ups for political persecution. 51. Another piece of information that is internationally significant is that the State requested the arrest of its main opposition leader residing in Belgium and sentenced in this case, but its request has been rejected by the International Criminal Organization (Interpol), as generally happens when this organization considers that there are well-founded reasons to suspect that these are acts of political persecution. 52. It is public and common knowledge that the bitter political struggle that divides Ecuador originated when former President Lenin Moreno broke with his predecessor, dividing the political movement that had brought him to power. In these circumstances, his predecessor and his supporters became the main opposition force, with serious difficulties in reorganizing their sector and participating in the elections. 15 ‘El caso Sobornos. Ocaso del garantismo penal. Estudio doctrinario y jurisprudencial’ (‘Bribery Case. Decline of criminal guarantees. Doctrinal and Judicial Analysis.’), Murillo Editores, Quito, 2021. 8