Date set for Martinelli pardons trial

 FOUR MONTHS after ex-president Ricardo Martinelli was arrested in Miami to face  extradition proceedings, a Panama court, on October 13, is scheduled to begin hearings over the pardons he granted in the final hours of his term.

The criminal pardons include the frontman of the recently uncovered drug smuggling operation  in the Los Santos mayor’s office

The hearing was set by Judge José Ayú Prado, acting as judge of guarantees, at the request of the prosecutor of the case Abel Zamorano.

Meanwhile  Martinelli is detained in  a Miami detention center, while his Florida lawyers attempt get him off the extradition hook by filing a  habeas corpus.

If it fails, and he is returned to Panama, he will first face trial in wiretapping charges that, if he is found guilty, could bring a 21-year jail sentence. Other corruption investigations will follow.

“It is a public and notorious fact that he is deprived of his liberty abroad, in  an extradition process, so that the Judicial Office will carry out the steps  necessary

necessary to use the respective channels and diplomatic channels, so that the date and time of the hearing, is communicated to him and not the existence of the collection of copies admitted by the

Supreme Court of Justice, because that was already communicated to him before, “said a  Judicial Branch note.

This hearing was originally scheduled for June 21

But  could not be realized, because 11 days before Martinelli was arrested  near his mansion in Coral Gables, Miami. At that time, Zamorano asked Ayú Prado not to advance with the act, because the ex-president “is in

an uncertain judicial situation” Zamorano said that it would be prudent to wait until the Martinelli’s procedural situation is clarified in the United States, before setting a new date for an audience.

In June 2014, shortly before  leaving power, Martinelli promulgated 19 decrees granting 355 pardons, most of them to persons who had not committed political crimes – which is a constitutional condition to receive such benefit reports La Prensa.

The complaint was admitted by the full Supreme Court on June 2, 20

15.