Martinelli Court hearing set for Wednesday

THE PROSECUTOR in the $44.9 million dehydrated food scandal has called for a Supreme Court hearing of ex-president Ricardo Martinelli on Wednesday, September 14.

It will be before  Supreme Court Judge Geromino Mejía

Oydén Ortega requested the hearing following  information received in a request for international assistance that was sent to Brazil.

The investigation is focused on a $44.9 million contract that was granted to the company Lerkshore International.

Supreme Court Judge Ortega plans to present the results of that request at the hearing.

The case is before the Supreme Court due to Martinelli’s  status as a deputy in the Central American Parliament(Parlacen)  a position he assumed on July 1, 2014, the day that Juan Carlos Varela took office.

He flew to Guatemala by private jet to be sworn into the body which during his election campaign he called a “ gang of thieves.”

Martinelli has a number of other outstanding alleged corruption cases before the courts, plus the charges of illegal surveillance of 150 political opponents, journalists, judges and businessmen.

After that he flew to Europe before settling in Miami in self-imposed exile, while continuing to attempt pull the strings of the Cambio Democratico Party (CD) which he founded and funded to smooth his way to office.

Interviewed by media in New York, in his early days as president, Martinelli  attributed his government’s success  to it being composed of “businessmen”.”

The corruption revelations in the past two years have given a new twist to his “”gang of thieves” metaphor.

During his early months in office he attempted to engineer Panama’s withdrawal from Parlacen.