New Martinelli ploy to void Financial Pacific investigation

IN YET ANOTHER maneuver  by Ricardo Martinelli’s legal team to prevent the former president being called to face justice, a motion will be filed to halt the investigation into alleged irregularities regarding the Financial Pacific (FP) brokerage  following  a meeting  between six Supreme Court justices and civic leaders.

The motion is based on article 447 of the Judicial Code which states that judges “should not granted private interviews to hear arguments or accept communications aimed at influencing its judicial action.”

Lawyer Carlos Carrillo said that “details and possible actions related to the investigation” were discussed at that meeting.

“No judge can be giving details of a case to a third party nor can he analyze the possible application of a rule in a specific case,” the lawyer argued.

The meeting, last week, included representatives of the Independent Movement for Panama (Movin), the National Association of Lawyers, the Chamber of Commerce, the Panamanian Chamber of Construction and the Panamanian Association of Business Executives, among others.

The actions of Supreme Court Chief Justice José Ayú Prado, who is acting as the judge in the case, have been questioned due to the fact that he is a Martinelli appointee and because he investigated the matter when he was attorney general.The meeting was called by Ayu Prado and already conspiracy theories are being aired including the suggestion that the meeting held at Ayu Prado’s invitation was a set-up engineered with Martinelli’s lawyers to get the case closed down.

Annette Planells, of Movin, said that they hope that Ayú Prado steps down from the case to remove any possible conflicts of interest.

Juan Carlos Araúz, vice president of the National Association of Lawyers, said that the meeting was not a violation of article 447 because it was held to discuss the general state of judicial affairs and not any specific case.

andlready conspiracy theories are being aired including the suggestion that the meeting held at Ayu Prado’s invitation was a set-up engineered with Martinelli’s lawyers to get the case closed down.