Ex-president mentally prepared for long extradition battle

Ex-president Ricardo Martinelli  is “mentally prepared for an extradition lasting “one year minimum” and even to that time in prison, while waiting  for the US Supreme Court to  hear an appeal against a Federal Court ruling refusing him bail.

The statement came from Martinelli spokesman Luis Eduardo Camacho Castro two days before an extradition  a hearing Before  US federal judge Edwin Torres.

Martinelli  has  behind bars in Miami  since June 12. He has been  in the city since 2015 when he fled Panama ahead of multiple criminal charges  and applied for asylum in the United claiming  political persecution by current president  Juan Carlos Varela, who was his vice-president.

In July he presented an emergency  appeal before the Supreme Court,  to assess the legality of the conditions of detention and  the extradition process he is facing in the Southern District Court Of Florida.

The first objective is to invalidate the arguments that Judge Torres has used to deny  bail on two occasions, essentially an antecedent of 1903 which states that this benefit is rarely granted to persons required for extradition.

Supreme Judge Clarence Thomas, appointed in 1991 by George H.W. Bush and considered one of The most conservative judges in the Court, is the one in who will hear the appeal.

The  Martinelli lawyers proposed that  Martinelli’s wife  Marta Linares de Martinelli,post a $ 500,000 bond and that the former president be detained in his Miami  mansion under strict surveillance conditions and with restrictions so that he t cannot travel in boats or planes.  These conditions “eliminate any risk of escape,” say the lawyers in their petition. The Miami judge turned down an earlier $20 million bail offer.

“He is a survivor, a fighter who does not shy away from adversity, but faces the situation, “said Camacho of Martinelli,

He told  Efe  news agency that Martinelli asked from the beginning of his arrest not to be alone and is sharing a cell with a Haitian detainee.

He  appears before the Miami court on August 3.