Foot dragging on Martinelli extradition

MONTH’S after the Supreme Court called for the arrest of former president Ricardo Martinelli for wire tapping political opponents, judges,  journalists and businessmen moves  for his extradition are  still floating in the air.

Thé news came from Vice President and Foreign Minister Isabel de Saint Malo de Alvarado during a speech in Washington on Thursday  May 5 when she confirmed that the request for Martinelli’s

extradition  as part of the criminal case into the interception of communications through the National Security Council has still not been processed.

“The Supreme Court needs to prepare the extradition request and send it to the Foreign Ministry, which will submit that request to the United States. Still we have not received that request from the Supreme Court,” said Saint Malo.

Martinelli, whose provisional detention was ordered by the court in December, left Panama on January 28, 2015. His lawyers have said that he is in Miami.

The vice president said that the situation is “complicated.”

“The extradition treaty with the United States is from the beginning of the 19th century, and the crime for which  the Supreme Court is requesting the extradition is not part of the treaty, because, at that time, there were no phones much less an offence to listen to conversations,” she said..

She said that, if the extradition is requested as part of the process of the interception of communications, Martinelli could not be prosecuted for other crimes.

So far, he faces seven complaints, some of which – according to chancellor – are for crimes that are “more serious.”