QUITO, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno said on Wednesday he had asked his legal team to analyze the judicial status of Vice-president Jorge Glas who had just been jailed on charges of bribery.
Glas is one of 18 Ecuadorians accused of accepting bribes from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht in exchange for granting the company lucrative public works contracts.
Glas has denied the charges, but prosecutors considered him to be a flight risk and on Monday ordered his arrest pending trial.
Moreno said he wanted to know whether Glas could be replaced and how to go about it.
"From my point of view, the country cannot be left with a vice president who is incapable of exercising his duties," Moreno told a gathering of reporters at the presidential headquarters on Wednesday.
"I have asked the team of lawyers to provide me with a mechanism I can use to remedy this absence," he added.
However, Glas had refused to step down, saying "resigning from the vice presidency would be akin to pleading guilty when I am innocent."
This is Glas' second turn as vice president. He also worked alongside Rafael Correa who served as president from 2007 till May of 2017.
Odebrecht allegedly paid out some 33.5 million U.S. dollars in bribes in Ecuador from 2007 to 2016, as part of a larger bribery case across much of Latin America, including Peru, Mexico and Venezuela.
