2024-02-02 15:56:46
The sentence of 10 years and 6 months in prison for money laundering handed down last July against the former president of Panama Ricardo Martinelli (2009-2014) became final this Friday after the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) rejected an appeal for cassation, the last legal way to invalidate it.
The Second Criminal Chamber resolved “not to admit the appeal on the merits, formalized by Mr. Carlos Eugenio Carrillo Gomilla, as legal representative of Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Berrocal,” says Edict Number 26 published this February 2 by the Secretariat. of that criminal instance.
This resolution makes Martinelli, 71, the first former president of Panama sentenced to prison for corruption in the country’s democratic history.
According to Panamanian law and jurists, the ruling confirmed this Friday disqualifies Martinelli from running as a presidential candidate in the elections on May 5 with his new party Realizing Goals (RM).
The appeal was raised by the Superior Court for the Settlement of Criminal Cases on December 11 to the Second Criminal Chamber of the CSJ, which upon rejecting it must return the file to the first instance that issued the conviction, so that, definitively enforceable, establishes the way in which the leadership or arrest of the former president will be effective, legal sources explained to EFE.
The unprecedented conviction against the former president for money laundering in the case known as “New Business”, the purchase with public funds of the Editorial Panamá América SA (Epasa), also forces him to pay a fine of 19,221,600.48 dollars , as indicated by the ruling last July of the Criminal Cases Liquidation Court, headed by Judge Baloísa Marquínez.
Former Panamanian president Ricardo Martinelli (file photo).
This ruling also orders “the dissolution of two companies and the (seizure) of the shares of a publishing house, in favor of the State, as well as the administration of movable and immovable property of said publishing house,” according to the judicial information.
In this case, whose investigation began in 2017, in addition to Martinelli, four other people were convicted of money laundering, while 10 were acquitted, the Judicial Branch said.
For the purchase of Epasa, 43.91 million dollars were collected in December 2010, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, which states that Martinelli “contacted contractors, contributed money” and was a “beneficiary” as he was the “holder of 60% of the shares.” ” from the publisher.
Martinelli, who calls himself a “politically persecuted man,” also faces charges in Panama for money laundering in the bribery case of the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, whose trial has been postponed several times and is expected to finally begin this year.
For the Odebrecht plot, two of Martinelli’s sons will also go to a special trial because they are deputies to the Central American Parliament (Parlacen), who have already served jail time in the United States after admitting there that they received from the Brazilian construction company and on the orders of their father, according to the judicial version, 28 million dollars in bribes.
In Spain, former President Martinelli is investigated in a case of alleged corruption for bribes that the Spanish construction company FCC confessed to having paid in Panama, and in another for espionage on a woman in Mallorca.
In January 2023, the United States Government sanctioned former President Martinelli and accused him of being involved in “large-scale corruption.”
EFE
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