Martinelli lawyers claim false Panama statements

Martinelli lawyers claim “false” Panama statementsLAWYERS  representing Panama’s fugitive ex-president. Ricardo Martinelli, currently imprisoned in a Miami  detention center, have taken a new tack in their attempts to get him released instead of heading back to Panama to face trial, for illegal surveillance, and illicit enrichment.

The defense team  says that Panama made “false  and deceptive” statements in seeking to get Martinelli extrasied from the U.S.

In new documents presented to Judge Edwin Torres, who is in charge of Martinelli’s extradition trial, the  lawyers said that the testimonies also justify his  release

John Richard Byrne and Marcos Daniel Jimenez, representatives of the detainee, said that the “false statements” appear to have been originated “by Supreme Court Justice Harry Diaz, who acts as prosecutor.

“Given the current state of this case, President Martinelli respectfully submits that a bail is appropriate and would allow him to better prepare for the long extradition struggle,” the lawyers said in the court documents, reports the Efe News Agency.

The defense had already argued in a prior bail motion that there were no “merits” in the wiretapping case and the “speculative” character of “belief-based” accusations recorded in an affidavit of, national security analyst Ismael Pitti;

They said  that, after reviewing some 3,000 pages of the extradition request, they determined not only the lack of a “probable cause” but Panama’s intentions to “deceive” the US federal court.

According to the defense, Diaz refers to embezzlement of public funds for more than $13 million with the purchase of a surveillance equipment called Pegasus from the Israeli company MLM Protection Ltd.

However, lawyers claim that the Pegasus equipment was purchased from a completely different company the NSO Group in which Martinelli, , is not involved, according to a 2015 audit by the ame Panamanian government.

In addition, they said  that there is no evidence that public funds were used to purchase the equipment.

The former president has been detained in Miami since June 12 and has asked for bail, but Judge Torres has not yet pronounced.

Prosecutor’s oppose his release  because in their  opinion there is a risk that he will flee the country.

Lawyers have also noted that Martinelli is awaiting the filing of an application for asylum in the United States filed in 2015.

Martinelli, who claims to be persecuted by Panama’s current president, Juan Carlos Varela, who was his vice president, is required by Panamanian courts to face multiple embezzlement charges.