Chief magistrate in eye of a fresh storm
REPRESENTATIVES Of civil society and lawyers warn that the increasingly isolated president of the Supreme Court Jose Ayu Prado, could be interfering in affairs of the Public Ministry (MP) and suggest that it could be a case of abuse of authority .
Their concerns are related to a letter sent by Ayu Prado to the Sixth Anticorruption, prosecutor requesting the restriction of movement of people being investigated in the case of the alleged corruption network that operated in the judiciary and charged sums of money in exchange for granting freedoms to people facing criminal proceedings in the courts, reports La Prensa.
In the letter, sent Feb. 4, the Chief Justice asked the prosecutor Aurelio Vásquez to “consider requiring, people denounced and investigated for alleged corruption in the Second Superior Criminal Court for, which they are suspended, to minimize their presence in the headquarters of the courts and High Courts of Justice. “
Ayu Prado supports the request with a letter from January 28 this year, in which the charge of the Bureau of Justice decongestion, Josefina Sclopis reports that one of the people investigated by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Sixth went to the premises of the judiciary to talk to an official of the entity.
The vice president of the National Bar Association (CNA), Juan Carlos Arauz, considered Ayu Prado, as a whistleblower in the case the corruption network, and has a limited role in court proceedings of the investigations reports La Prensa.
Anette Planells, of the Panama Independent Movement (Movin), said: “It is unacceptable that the president of the Supreme Court suggest to prosecutors actions to be taken (…)”. “[This is] a report that highlighted the vulnerability of the judiciary and so far seems to include everyone involved, and we do not know of officials with decision-making power under investigation,” she said.
She e added: “at a time when what is needed is full transparency and a clear separation of powers of the State, the letter can be interpreted as interference of the Supreme Court in the Public Ministry.P”.
Kevin Moncada, lawyer for Kira Puga, one of the investigated in the process, the action of President of the Court “is unusual.” “The magistrate Ayu Prado acted as whistleblowers and complainants are not parties to the process,” he said.
It is not the first time suggestions have been made that that Ayu Prado exceeded his functions.
In July 2013, Mayte Pellegrini, accused of allegedly committing financial crimes in the Financial Pacific (FP) brokerage scandal was forced to withdraw statements she had made, linking then president Ricardo Martinelli with a secret account called High Spirit, which was opened to “manipulate the stock market with shares of Petaquilla” “and it was President Martinelli”.
In a letter to La Prensa she wrote: “My withdrawal was written by [Ricardo] Ricki Solis and Jose Ayu Prado. “Nothing I signed came out of my mouth, but from theirs. When he was about to leave, he even made me go back and re-sign, because they had forgotten something, “Pellegrini said.
When La Prensa asked the president of the Court for a comment he said “he could not answer because he was in a bank.”