250 face corruption trials

THE PUBLIC PROSECUTOR’S Office has sought judgment in at least 20 cases of alleged corruption linked to 250 people and officials of the Ricardo Martinelli government.

The files are commission of crimes against the public administration reports La Prensa.

Thirteen of the cases are in the courts pending preliminary hearing, two already have a trial date,  while in five cases, the courts have already held hearings.

The investigations began in late 2014, and were extended during 2015 and 2016.

One of the first is the one to do with possible crimes against the public administration in the contract to acquire dehydrated food in $45 million, through the extinct  National Assistance Program(PAN), in which Martinelli is alleged to have been a key player.

At the same time, the process was also started, which sought to determine who was responsible for the loss of

A computer to intercept communications, which was acquired from Israel  by the Martinelli  government for  $13.4 million to spy on at least 150 citizens, including politicians, journalists and lawyers.