Ecuador's President Rafael Correa has been urged by Human Rights Watch (HRW) to stop using criminal defamation laws to target his critics.
It argues that the convictions of an opposition legislator, José Cléver Jiménez Cabrera, and two union members for slandering the president violate their right to freedom of expression.
"President Correa has long made it clear that he's willing to go after anyone who criticises him, from civil society leaders to media critics," said José Miguel Vivanco, HRW's Americas director.
"But with his most recent targeting of an opposition legislator, his abuse of power to suppress those he sees as his enemies has reached new and alarming heights."
Jiménez has been sentenced to 18 months in prison, ordered to make a public apology to Correa and ordered to pay him about £90,000 in compensation. His second appeal is pending. Jiménez has told HRW he will not make the apology and cannot afford to pay Correa.
It was in August 2011 that Jiménez, along with two union members - Carlos Eduardo Figueroa Figueroa and Fernando Alcíbiades Villavicencio Valencia - asked the attorney general to investigate Correa's responsibility for the violent incidents that occurred on 30 September 2010.
Correa was held captive by police officers protesting about a cut in pay and he was rescued by soldiers during a shoot-out in which five people died.
Jiménez and the union members accused Correa of "promoting political chaos… and perpetrating crimes against humanity" by ordering an armed assault on a police hospital where civilians were working.
NB: Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, was granted diplomatic asylum by Ecuador in August 2012 after taking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London two months before.
Sources: Human Rights Watch/ABC News
