AKIPRESS.COM - A court in Ecuador has sentenced former President Jamil Mahuad in absentia to 12 years in jail for embezzlement.

The ruling comes two days after Interpol issued a warrant for his arrest. He denies any wrongdoing.

Mr Mahuad fled to the United States in 2000 after a military coup.

He was accused of ordering banks to close for several days and freezing the accounts of ordinary citizens to protect the interests of bankers associated with him, BBC said.

The decision, taken in March 1999, came during a serious economic crisis.

Ecuador was struggling at the time with high inflation, a devalued currency and historically low prices for oil, its main export.

Mr Mahuad had been in office for less than a year.

"The crime committed by the accused caused huge social turmoil," Judge Ximena Vintimilla said in her ruling.

"Its consequences are still being felt by Ecuadorean society to this day," she added.