Panamas Immigration director under investigation
Panama’s Immigration Director María Cristina González is under investigation for alleged crimes against individual freedom.
The Supreme Court has authorized prosecutors to begin investigating a complaint filed by attorney Benjamín Arias on behalf of Chinese citizen Guo-Quiang Wang, arrested on May 12, 2010 by Immigration officials and held for several days.
The other case involves Colombian Jorge Rueda, who was arrested July 29 while trying to enter the country. Rueda was deported after 36 hours without being informed as to why, and did not having the opportunity to defend himself.
Rueda said that he lives permanently in Panama, where he works as a salesman in in the Colón Free Zone and is married to a Panamanian citizen and they have three sons of Panamanian nationality.
Supreme Court judges Judges Aníbal Salas, Jerónimo Mejía and José Almengor said that González violated the standards of due process in dealing with the two cases.