Martinelli legal team press briefing fizzles out

A PRESS conference called by lawyers if Martinelli on  Monday July 10, intended to reveal strong evidence of government malfeasance  in  its efforts  to extradite  the ex-president from the US  to face illegal surveillance and embezzlement charges was a damp squib.

The hastily summoned event  held in offices of the Democratic Change Party (CD) founded funded and ruled as a personal fiefdom by Martinelli, as he built a path to the presidency.

Among the press conference  luminaries was former cabinet member Alma Cortes, currently out on $300,000 bail while under investigation  for illegal enrichment and the center of controversy within the CD after being named as stand-in leader.Martinelli was ordered detained on  December 21  2015 and, was charged with the alleged

Martinelli was ordered detained on  December 21  2015 and, was charged with the alleged

Commission of four crimes: inviolability of secrecy and the right to privacy, and embezzlement.

Questions about future defense moves were constantly parried although it was  announced that it will file legal actions against the ambassador of Panama in the US, Emmanuel González Revilla, and an official of the Foreign Ministry in Panama –

Allegedly having “usurped functions and illegally introduced tests and

Documents “in the extradition file to Martinelli.

Among the evidence alleged to have been introduced is an affidavit (statement) of

Ismael Pittí, an ex spy  of the National Security Council that participated in the  unauthorized interceptions in the last two years of the Martinelli government.

“We are not going to enter to give statements about the actions of the defense … We are not going to comment on the legal strategy in the United States. ”  attorney Carlos Carrillo replied, on several occasions.

Journalists left the meeting with little more than they had gained earlier from the railings of long time Martinelli spokesman and rally organizer  Eduardo Camacho with his continued “political persecution” theme.

Martinelli faces nearly a dozen corruption and embezzlement charges in addition to the ones linked to the extradition request.