Judge Ay Prado a Varela mistake Justice Alliance

ONE of the major  mistakes of the present government was endorsing  José Ayú Prado  as president of The Supreme Court said the executive director of the Citizens’ Alliance for Justice, Magaly Castillo  on Saturday, Feb. 11.

She was speaking  during a Workshop on the Code of Criminal Procedure and  referring to allegations by  lawywr Ramon Fonseca Mora that President Varela, his brother and Panamenista deputy Valderama were behind the ratification of the appointment to avoid investigation of Odebrecht contracts.

“We knew that,” she said adding that All Panama criticized the nomination and the government participated in this. The government has been burdened with the blame since the day he was named, and criticism of the system finally affected the government because it ratified the re-election of Ayú Prado as president of the Court. “

“One of the errors of the government, of President Varela has been to keep Ayú Prado in the Court”

All of Panama was waiting for the issue of Mossack Fonseca to be investigated, she said and described  as positive “that it is being investigated and that there is no protection from the President”.

Castillo was referring to the diligences carried out by the

Public Prosecutor’s Office and specifically the Second Public Prosecutor’s Office Against Organized Crime, which ordered the preventive detention of Jürgen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca Mora.

Both are investigated for alleged money laundering, in a case linked to the Lava Jato operation in Brazil.

On expectations of civil society for this and other cases of corruption that affect Panama, the lawyer said  they expect everything to be in compliance with the law to regain confidence in the institutions of justice. “Sadly, that does not exist at this moment, “she said.

In relation to the Odebrecht  international bribery scandal Castillo reiterated the proposal for  an independent international commission to “accompany technically the work to be carried out by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, “It is happening in other countries … Guatemala, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic is preparing for that,” she said., Castillo summed up  reports La Prensa: “We want justice to investigate the crimes of corruption of the past government, of this and of that to come “.