Former journalist Fernando Villavicencio’s family and friends have urged an investigation into who ordered his killing.

A court in Ecuador has handed down prison sentences of 12 to 34 years to five people found guilty of conspiring to murder presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.

Journalist-turned-politician Villavicencio was shot dead while leaving a rally in August 2023. The killing of the anticorruption campaigner left the country reeling amid its spiralling violence, with the government declaring a state of emergency.

The ruling on Friday, read out by Milton Maroto, one of the court’s three judges, can be appealed by both the prosecution and the defence. The trial started at the end of June.

Prosecutors accused at least two of those tried of belonging to Los Lobos, among 22 criminal gangs designated as “terrorists” by President Daniel Noboa in January. The suspects were also accused of having ties to the administration of former President Rafael Correa.

According to the attorney general’s office, Carlos Edwin Angulo Lara, known as ‘El Invisible’ (‘The Invisible’), gave the order to murder Villavicencio from his jail cell, while another suspect, Laura Dayanara Castillo, was in charge of logistics.

Both Angulo and Castillo were sentenced to 34 years and eight months.

The others – Erick Ramirez, Victor Flores and Alexandra Chimbo – were handed prison terms of 12 years.

Villavicencio, whose journalism exposed corruption and connections between organised crime and politicians, had long faced threats.

Prosecutors are undertaking a separate investigation into who ordered the murder.

One of the hit men died at the scene of Villavicencio’s murder and seven other suspects – mostly Colombian citizens – were murdered in October while being held in prisons on pre-trial detention.

Seven additional suspects were later arrested, one of whom died and another who was acquitted.

The remaining five went on trial.

Who ordered the killing?

Villavicencio’s family and friends have decried the multiple delays in the case and urged an investigation into who ordered his killing.

A witness who testified during the trial claimed there was a $200,000 bounty on Villavicencio’s head because he campaigned against gangs and corruption.

The witness also accused the suspects of working for individuals with links to Correa, who is in exile after he was convicted on corruption charges in 2020.

The former president, who lives in Belgium, denies any link to the murder.

Veronica Sarauz, Villavicencio’s widow, had asked judges earlier on Friday in a post on X to apply the full weight of the law to those accused.

In a separate post on X, Villavicencio’s daughter, Amanda, wrote, “We need to know the whole truth and make sure this is not repeated again.”

Outside the court, relatives and supporters chanting slogans held up posters that read “jail for cowardly murderers” and pictures of Villavicencio.

Since 2023 nearly a dozen politicians have been assassinated in Ecuador.

Once-peaceful Ecuador is witnessing an unprecedented wave of violence linked to narcotics trafficking.

With ports on the Pacific, the country serves as a transit point for cocaine produced in Colombia and Peru and sent to the United States and Europe.

The homicide rate in Ecuador, a country of about 17 million people, soared from six per 100,000 inhabitants in 2018 to 47 per 100,000 last year.