Judicial appointees independence questioned

THE RATIFICATION  by the National Assembly of at least one of President Varela’s picks as a replacement for outgoing Supreme Court judges may be in doubt as both opposition parties, have called on their sitting deputies to close ranks and give the appointments the thumbs down.

The two were named by the Cabinet Council on Friday but opposed the next day by the boards of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) and Democratic Change (CD).

The PRD, sent a communiqué, to its caucus in the National Assembly to close ranks so as not to allow the Judicial Branch “to be manipulated as a weapon of political persecution and impunity.”

The oldest and largest party in the country said that Varela’s decision to appoint two lawyers, close to him, was unilateral and unconscionable because of the lack of participation of the rest of society in the selection of the aspirants.

Varela, designated the special anti-corruption prosecutor, Zuleyka Moore, and the lawyer Ana Lucrecia Tovar de Zarak, as replacements for magistrates Oydén Ortega and Jerónimo Mejía, who end their constitutional term on  December 31

Tovar de Zarak is the wife of the former Deputy Minister of Economy and Finance, Ivan Zarak, who resigned on Thursday.

The CD collective also asked its deputies to vote against ratification.

The general secretary of the CD, Rómulo Roux,  who aspires to challenge Martinelli for the party leadership said: ‘I reject the appointment of Zuleyka Moore to the CSJ. Closeness to the executive, abuse of preventive detention, selectivity and lack of independence worries me. The appointments sharpen the crisis in the justice system, “

The naming of Tovar de Zarak,  has put the independence of the Judicial Body is in question,  says El Siglo because in addition to being the wife of a member of the Cabinet, she is apparently an activist of the Panameñista Party.

On Saturday after her appointment became known images were circulated on social networks in which the lawyer is seen during the 2014 political campaign wearing  Panamenista colors and in clear support of Varela’s presidential candidacy, raising questions over her independence or impartiality.

Minister of Economy and Finance, Dulcidio De La Guardia, said that those who oppose the appointment of the new magistrates of the CSJ want impunity to reign in Panama.

“They are two women,  family mothers, of great professional trajectory and brave”, argued the minister.

Annette Planells, of the Independent Movement (Movin), said that both Moore and Tovar de Zarak are brave, capable and full-fledged women to occupy these positions, however, she said that the debate will be about independence.

“We hope that the Assembly can fulfil its role by evaluating the candidates based on the profile of what we need for a CSJ magistrate,” said Planells.

“Independence is a characteristic beyond to whom you are married or for whom you work,” she said referring to Tovar de Zarak.

While, Moore in many cases should be declared impeded, as it was she who investigated them by being in the Public Ministry.