Supreme Court Judge facing 8 complaints

WHILE Jose Ayu Prado The President of Panama’s Supreme Court twists  in the storm over his refusal to recuse himself from the Financial Pacific Case, involving Ricardo Martinelli, the man who twice appointed him to high office, he has eight outstanding  complaints against him  in the Credentials Committee of the National Assembly.

One of them  filed in 2013 by lawyer Rosendo Rivera,  is that when he was Attorney General he allegedly forced Mayte Pellegrini, a former confidential  employee of Financial Pacific, to retract a statement linking then  president Ricardo Martinelli to  an account [High Spirit] at the brokerage which was allegedly   used to manipulate stock prices of the Canadian mining company, Petaquilla Minerals.

One of the complaints against Ayu Prado dates back more than a year and was filed by union leader Mariano Mena, who accused him of  the alleged crime of abuse of authority after having ordered the destruction of evidence when he was Attorney General  in the investigation of computer hacking of  the then Minister of the Presidency, Demetrio Papadimitriu.

Another five complaints against Ayu Prado were filed by attorney David Alexis Sitton, for the alleged commission of crimes of influence peddling, abuse of authority, abuse of office and corruption of officials

The eighth record relates to a complaint  brought by  the lawyer Roniel Ortiz, representing Hipólito Cedeno, for allegedly committing crimes against the public administration when he served as Attorney’s General.

The commission, chaired by Jorge Ivan Arrocha, Panameñista,  has set an October 15 session to address the complaints.