Martinelli pardons case delayed
ANOTHER CASE involving long gone former president Ricardoo Martinelli is winding its weary way through the Panama courts system.
The Supreme Court has suspended the hearing convened Wednesday March 29 to resolve the objection filed by Martinelli’s battery of defense lawyers until April 3.
The hearing is over the granting of 355 pardons, mostly to political insiders, in June 2014, before he fled the country to self imposed exile.
The suspension was adopted because magistrates Abel
Zamorano and Jose Ayú Prado who serve as prosecutor and judge of guarantees of the case, were attending to another matter.
Martinelli’s lawyers oppose Zamorano’s request for a hearing to charge the former president.
On Aug. 14, 2014, President Juan Carlos Varela annulled the 19 decrees signed by Martinelli, thus revoking the 355 pardons.
Following the decision, the Public Ministry sent the court a complaint to determine the disciplinary, criminal or patrimonial responsibility against the officials who granted the pardons.
The full Supreme Court opened the process against Martinelli in July 2015. He is living in Miami while papers for his extradition to face multiple criminal charges, sit in US administration archives.
