Oderbrecht bribery trial starring two ex-presidents postponed

The Odebrecht bribery, trial starring two former Panama presidents and over a score of previous high rollers has been delayed once again. It was due to start Tuesday, August 1, but. The Second Criminal Settlement Court has postponed it to its alternate date: from September 27 to October 17.

The Judicial Branch reports that the court is still analyzing the evidence presented by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office and the defense lawyers.

Judge Baloisa Marquínez must evaluate thousands of pages to determine if they will be admitted for trial or excluded.

It was reported that the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, for example, presented 30 documentary evidence and 14 testimonials. Among them are bank reports on the movements of the accounts through which Odebrecht funds circulated; legal assistance requested from Brazil, Andorra, Switzerland, Spain, the United States, and Belize, among other jurisdictions.

The team of anti-corruption prosecutors from the Public Ministry delivered its evidence brief to the Second Liquidating Court for Criminal Cases last week.

An annulment motion presented by Carlos Carrillo, from the team of lawyers of former President, Ricardo Martinelli is also being processed. Martinelli, together with former president Juan Carlos Varela, are among the 36 called to trial for the crime against the economic order and against the national economy, in the form of money laundering. The preliminary hearing in this case was held between September 12 and 28, 2022.

Basilio González, lawyer for two defendants (former Minister of Public Works, Jaime Ford Castro, and businessman Aaron Ronny Mizrachi), said he was unaware of the prosecution’s evidence brief and explained that the defense attorneys can appeal the admission of some of them.

Once the evidence is admitted by the court, the lawyers and the prosecutor’s office can appeal its admission and this would be resolved by the Superior Court for Settlement of Criminal Cases.

In addition to Martinelli, Varela, Ford, and Mizrachi, those called to trial also include former ministers Demetrio Jimmy Papadimitriu, Federico Pepe Suárez, Frank De Lima, and José Domingo Arias, all from the Martinelli administration (2009-2014).

Also on the list are Carlos Dubois and the brothers Luis Enrique and Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Linares, sons of former President Martinelli.

The Martinelli Linares brothers have already been imprisoned in New York, after confessing before a judge that they received $28 million in bribes from Odebrecht, according to them, on their father’s instructions.

The United States designated former presidents Martinelli and Varela as corrupt; both are prohibited from entering that country.