Martinellilast-gasp extradition hearing

Ex-president Ricardo  Martinelli’s  last-gasp attempt to avoid extradition to Panama to face trial on wire-tapping charges which carry a potential sentence of 20 years,  will be heard in a Miami courtroom on January 16.

It comes just five days before the Democratic Change (CD) Party holds its internal elections, with Martinelli seeking to remain as leader of the party he founded to further his political ambitions, and, judging by corruption investigations, his financial standing.

Judge Marcia Cooke, of the Southern District Court of Florida, will listen to the habeas corpus arguments presented by  Martinelli’s well funded legal team to prevent his extradition.

The hearing,  was originally scheduled for January 9, and the delay will ensure that the ex-ruler will reach his seventh month in the sparse cell in the Miami Detention Center, one block the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr., Federal court building.

Martinelli was arrested  near his  Coral Gables mansion on June 12, at the request of Panama’s Supreme Court which  wants him to answer for the unauthorized interception of communications from the National Security Council, attached to the Presidency, in the last two years of his mandate (2012-2014) with multi-million dollar snoop equipment purchased from Israel. The equipment and two of its operators have since disappeared.

The habeas corpus was filed on September 28, 29 days federal judge Edwin Torres- endorses the hand over of Martinelli to Panama, considering that there are

“reasonable grounds” to assume that the former president is guilty “of all or any of the crimes that are imputed to him … given the wealth of evidence provided by the Supreme Court of Justice in the request for extradition.”