Justice with the brakes on

A case of disappearing funds involving the sister of former president Mireya Moscoso that first surfaced in 2004 and is still mired in the courts.
It was first brought to public attention by the National Front Against Corruption.
Taiwan had given $6 million to a museum foundation under the direction of then First Lady, Ruby Moscoso de Young, sister of the president.
Of the gifted money some $4.6 million was unaccounted for and records in the Attorney General’s office showed that monies were deposited in fixed term bank accounts without the authorization of the Comptroller’s office.
The funds and interest were later withdrawn by persons not connected with the Foundation.
The case was re-opened in 2007 and Moscoso de Young was accused of misappropriation of funds. According to a corruption prosecutor she used funds intended for the construction of homes for the poor, to renovate her home in Bethania.
Since then the case has languished.
Another case that has dragged on through the years involved a worker close to President Moscoso, whose freezer was found stuffed full of dollars, far in excess of her earnings. They got the name “durodolares” after the frozen fruit cubes made in the ice cube trays of freezers. The expression is still current with Panamanians when referring to stolen funds.
With the recent re-opening of the Moscoso de Young case, La Prensa has commented on the dragging process.
President Ricardo Martinelli served in the Government of Mireya Moscoso who is a supporter of the present administration and who appointed two of the current Supreme Court Judges.
An editorial in La Prensa, February 24 read:
“Some of the people who pull the strings of the judiciary do so so clumsily, that even a child would realize that they are cheating the system. Take the cases of the Fundación Mar del Sur (  South Sea Foundation) and durodólares. Both spent years inside judicial offices without a single step being take. That makes us think that justice will not be delivered. Rather, officials appear to use these files as a pillow to take their daily nap.
“In contrast, others, like the case of the suspension of the Attorney General,they are so diligent that we wonder about the reason for the backlog of cases. The answer is obvious: the Panamanian justice is selective. So what should we expect from the Public Ministry investigation in the case of the South Sea Foundation? The deputy prosecutor yesterday gave us a clue. Answering a question on the whereabouts of this case, he replied: "I do not know … it is with one of many [prosecutors] that there are.” ". So, no surprise that they do very little. After all, he left the coalition of parties in power in which militate, several of those involved in this case.”