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.
