La naturaleza jurídica de la prisión preventiva en el Ecuador dentro del marco internacional de derechos humanos

Abstract

In this investigation work, the legal nature of pretrial detention in Ecuador as well as its role in the Ecuadorian criminal law are analyzed. For this purpose, the opinion of the Constituent in the Assembly of Montecristi was analyzed with a special process. It was made by the legislators who debated and approved the Codigo Organico Integral Penal in 2014. They also revised the reading and interpretation of the legal and constitutional norm, as well as the opinion of the judges in the Constitutional Court of Ecuador and judges in the Inter-American System of Human Rights. As a result, pretrial detention has to be applied under exceptional circumstances and limited to values of temporality and provisionality. In this way, pretrial detention does not turn into an early sentence, since that would cause violation of constitutional rights, such as the presumption of innocence and freedom. Therefore, its use should be limited to non-custodial precautionary measures that pursues the same purposes and are less harmful for the criminally prosecuted person.