Bar Association sending team to Italy to study corruption file

PANAMA’S NATIONAL Bar Association (CNA), has asked the Supreme Court for an urgent meeting of the Judicial Council to discuss the Valter Lavitola corruption trial in Italy and is sending a commission to study links to Panama.

The application has received expedited treatment, and a session is scheduled for Monday March 31. The Council is composed of the presidents of the three halls of the Supreme Court (Civil , Criminal and Administrative Disputes), the Attorney General's Office and the Office of Administration , as well the Bar .

CNA president , José Alberto Álvarez said that the meeting with the judicial authorities will prioritize the dismissal of Judge Alexis Ballesteros, the Finmeccanica case, concerns about government cost overruns and alleged corruption in general , which has splashed judges says an article in La Estrella.
The board of the Association agreed to send a delegation to Rome, Italy, to see firsthand the contents of the file in which names of current government officials are mentioned.
Lawyers want to know and be aware of the position of the Republic of Panama, as a State , within the document .
The commission will travel to Italy and must submit a report to the board, which will then be made public. Members of the commission will be Italo Antinori, chairman of the Committee on Constitutional Rights, and Miguel Antonio Bernal , president of the Human Rights Commission , in addition to Herbert Young, secretary of the board , and José Alberto Álvarez .
Antinori expressed concern that no one knows for sure what's in the record concerning Panama. The trip to Italy is not the only initiative of CNA.
 They sent a letter to Attorney General, Ana Belfon , in which they insist she stays alert, toanalyze and study the process followed in Italy to legally determine the possible resumption of research in Panama for what happened in detail.
Belfon has already said the case is closed.