OPINION: Panama – Democracy or Kleptocracy?

hoyporhoy La Prensa, June 16
IN ORDER to be able to judge former President Ricardo Martinelli for crimes other than wiretapping, it is necessary to bring those criminal cases into the extradition trial in Miami.
This requires that Judges of the Supreme Court of Justice act with diligence and expedite the processes that are in their purvue and living in abandonment. It is unacceptable that the situation of the statute of limitations should be repeated like that of Bahía Onda, that was shelved by the magistrates to let it die.
Nor can it be tolerated that almost a year elapses to convene an imputation hearing, or that when they occur, lawyers of the accused are absent.
In addition, to the active cases, there are complaints that also remain in oblivion, waiting for the Supreme Court to admit them. All these files must be part of the extradition process.
This is the time when the nine justices of the Supreme Court of
Justice will decide the future of Panama. They will choose whether we are a democracy or a kleptocracy. That is their task for the nation.