Prisión preventiva y el principio de proporcionalidad

Abstract

In Ecuadorian legislation, as in the international treaties and agreements ratified by Ecuador, preventive detention is a precautionary measure of a personal and exceptional nature, because it restricts the right to freedom of the person. The Organic Code of Comprehensive Criminal COIP, provides for preventive detention under Article 534, establishing the requirements that must concur for it to be ordered, these being: elements of conviction that demonstrate the crime for which it is being charged, elements on intervention the defendant, they must be clear and precise, evidence to justify that the other precautionary measures are insufficient to guarantee the appearance in the trial of the defendant and that the crime is punishable by a penalty of more than one year. Likewise, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has pointed out that it is important that alternative personal measures be rationalized, since the indiscriminate application of preventive detention contributes to increasing the levels of prison overcrowding, a feature that is characteristic of Latin American countries. Precisely, the principle of proportionality established in the Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador is the ideal mechanism that allows the judge to impose a precautionary measure observing due process. This study addresses the importance of the effective application of this principle, so that preventive detention meets a true legal nature and does not become a prejudgment or an anticipated penalty.