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.”