Martinelli moves to avoid detention on return

Panama’s former president Ricardo Martinelli who,  before his arrest and jailing in Miami,  had boasted of a triumphal return to Panama and a cross-country parade to the welcoming cries of his supporters in the CD party is now trying to avoid preventive detention when he arrives under escort to face trial.

While his application for bail in Miami has not yet been resolved, Dimas Guevera one of his battery of highly paid lawyers is attempting a pre-emptive strike and applying for bail when he arrives back on home soil.

The request will be determined on Wednesday, February 7, at a  10 am hearing in the Supreme Court reports TVN News.

The hearing will be attended by the magistrates of the Plenary of the Supreme Court (CSJ),

Martinelli is accused as the possible perpetrator of the crime of inviolability of secrecy and right to intimacy and others,  involving 150 opposition politicians, businessmen and journalists.

The triumphal parade is a non-event, as Martinelli could return in handcuffs and is no longer ruler of the party he created to further his political ambitions. Some of his erstwhile supporters have fled to other fields and even created a new party.

Meanwhile, the latest move will fuel the growing outcry against corruption and impunity. Should he end up in detention in El Renacer prison while awaiting trial, he will find remnants of his old network in a new “inner circle.”