US Judge named Martinelli in CSS bribery case

A  US FEDERAL  judge identified former president Ricardo Martinelli as one of the alleged co-conspirators in a bribery scheme that assisted a  subsidiary of the German software company SAP to sell software to Panama’s Social Security System, CSS in exchange for bribes. [An American involved has already been jailed].

This is part of the contents of a letter sent by 23 human rights organizations to  US Government Secretaries Rex Tillerson (State) and Steven Mnuchin (Treasury), calling for Martinelli to be sanctioned  on the basis of the ‘Magnitsky Law’, which prosecutes accused aliens of corruption and violation of human rights.

At least 23 human rights and anti-corruption organizations signed the letter  to Tillerson and Mnuchin, in which they ere asked to impose sanctions on Martinelli,  such as the withdrawal of his visa and the freezing of assets that are under the jurisdiction of the US.

The organizations base their request on the application of the Global Liability Human Rights (Magnitsky Act), which allows for sanctions against foreigners accused of corruption and violations of human rights,

Martinelli has been in detention since June 12 in Miami, US, awaiting extradition to face  wiretapping and embezzlement charges  during his term in office (2009-2014)

Tillerson must make the final decision on the extradition of Martinelli to Panama after federal judge Edwin Torres declared him extraditable last August.

The letter, signed, among others, by organizations such as Human Rights Watch (HRW), Transparency International, Freedom House and Reporters Without Borders, says: “In his term as president, the perpetrator -Martinelli- and his relatives allegedly embezzled up to $100 million of the social services projects designed to help the citizens of Panama. “

They also emphasized that at  the present time there are more than 200 investigations open in cases supposedly corrupt that occurred during his term, with the former president [as] the “target “of nine Supreme Court investigations, including bribery, misappropriation of  public funds and abuse of power, “