MEDIA WATCH: Judges former professor indicts Ayu Prado

“JOSE AYU PRADO Canals was my student at the Faculty of Law and Political Science at the University of Panama” wrote Guillermo A. Cochez in  La Estrella on Monday October 5”.

“ Excellent and capable, he specialized in Copyright and Intellectual Property, earning the reputation of being among the best on the continent in this area.

“ As an intellectual property attorney, on several occasions, I had him as a guest lecturer in my classes of Commercial Law. He was very well liked by the students for his presentations.

“He was ‘half cornered’ by the prosecutor Ana Matilde Gomez, who wanted to clean the office of everyone  that smelled of her predecessor Jose Antonio Sossa, although eventually several dismissed prosecutors were reinstated by the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court, paying them huge sums of money as back pay, given the lack of legal basis to be removed from office.

“Today, civil society has asked Jose Ayu Prado to declare himself prevented in the Financial Pacific case followed against former President Ricardo Martinelli. The most serious known involvement of Jose Ayu Prado … is the one of his attention to the case of the detention of businessman Jean Figali, where even a murder attempt could have been possible. This severe case seems to be unnoticed.

“At that time, June 2010, Ayu Prado was the Special Prosecutor against organized crime and ordered the preventive detention of Jean Figali, based on reports from two auditors of the Financial Analysis Unit (UAF), which were never ratified. Based on that falsehood, Ayu Prado arbitrarily ordered the arrest of Figali who was sent to El Renacer prison, where he almost died because Ayu Prado simply did not allow him to go to hospital.

“There were more than a dozen requirements of lawyers asking for medical care for Figali that the prosecution did not even answer. It is clear that the false report of the UAF -entity under the Presidency of Panama- was led by “President Martinelli and perhaps others, in their eagerness to grab, at any cost, Figali’s project. Finally, for lack of evidence, Jean Figali was acquitted from the serious crimes invented by the prosecutor Ayu Prado.

“In serious condition, vomiting blood, Figali was picked up by other inmates from the floor of his cell in El Renacer in a construction wheelbarrow and the prison director, scared to death that he could die in his hands, urgently sent him in ambulance to the National Hospital. Thanks to several surgeries by Dr. Ramiro da Silva, Jean Figali his life was saved, and he  spent several days in intensive care. His health was seriously threatened by the actions of the prosecutor Ayu Prado.

“ Ayu Prado  was later awarded, perhaps for the Figali case and other cases that he handled and that are now questioned, the post of Attorney General and quickly ‘ascended’ to judge of the Supreme Court and became its president, as Martinelli could not re-impose again in that position then   judge Alejandro Moncada Luna,  currently detained in El Renacer prison.

“ I remember that I intervened in this case, phoning from Washington, where I was ambassador to the OEA to – to the then Attorney General – and my ex-student- Ayu Prado, asking him to allow the medical care required by Jean Figali. He promised to help, but never did so. Figali was near to dying and in critical condition when he was finally taken to receive medical help, due to the inexplicable refusal of the prosecutor.

“I think, Jose Ayu Prado must declare himself prevented in the case of Financial Pacific.

“ I will go further, in a country where you do not want to go to the root of the problems, but only to the branches. As his ex-professor and not being the one to judge anyone, I think he would do a great service to Panama, if he tells the president that he puts his position available and does not wait again until President Varela publicly asks for his resignation.

“ Justice must be credible and transparent, above all.