A criminal judge called 36 people to trial, including former presidents Ricardo Martinelli and Juan Carlos Varela, accused of money laundering in the case of the millionaire bribes delivered by the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht to carry out large works in Panama, in one of the largest corruption cases in the Central American country and on the continent.
Several former ministers of former President Martinelli – who has reiterated his intention to be a presidential candidate in 2024 – and his two sons, Luis Enrique and Ricardo Alberto, who they are serving a prison sentence in the US after confessing to having participated in the bribery scheme for 28 million dollars.
The Public Ministry on its Twitter account stated that the “Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office managed to summon 36 people to trial, including 2 former presidents of the Republic, 6 former ministers, 2 sons of a former president (2009-2014), and other former officials, businessmen and individuals for money laundering” for the Odebrecht case. He did not publish the names of the defendants.
The court set the plenary hearing date from August 1 to 18, 2023 and as an alternate date from September 27 to October 17 of the same year. For this last date, the judge appointed alternate public defenders to guarantee the right of defense in case the private defenders do not appear and thus also prevent the trial from being suspended due to the absence of any of the lawyers.
In 2024 there will be a new call for elections, in which Martinelli aspires to return to power at the hands of his Realizing Goals Party, after distancing himself from the Democratic Change group, which he also formed and that brought him to power in 2009.
The lawyer Ernesto Cedeño explained that the call to trial does not prevent the former president from continuing with his presidential aspirations. According to his approach, the former president maintains the principle of innocence during the judicial process against him and according to the Panamanian constitution, only a final conviction of five years or more in prison could prevent him from running for the presidency again.
Apart from the call to trial of 36 people, Judge Baloísa Marquínes determined a provisional dismissal for 11 people and a definitive dismissal for one accused, the Judicial Branch said in a statement. The call to trial occurs after a preliminary hearing was held last September and the judge accepted the term stipulated by law to issue her decision.
During the last preliminary hearing, the prosecutors drew up a complex scheme to move the money from the alleged bribes during the Martinelli government. The Public Ministry described the creation of multiple corporations that received and transferred funds to buy real estate, among other projects, where large sums of money circulated, the source of which was attributed to the payment of bribes.
According to the investigations, the Brazilian construction giant paid millions of dollars in bribes to access contracts with the State or other benefits in Panama between 2010 and 2014 during the government of Martinelli, who denies that he received bribes. Other Latin American countries were also affected by the bribery scandal.
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