Court rejects New Business delaying move

The Eighteenth Criminal Court has rejected an appeal for nullity presented by the defense of Daniel Miguel Ochy,  investigated for alleged money laundering in the case known as New Business, related to alleged irregularities in the acquisition of the Panama America publishing group by a clutch of Ricardo Martinelli insiders using public money.

The appeal presented by the lawyers Oswaldo Fernández and José Martín wanted to cancel the  accumulation, by the Organized Crime Prosecutor  in a single file the complaint filed by lawyer Jaime Abad against the companies Transcaribe Trading and Excavaciones del Istmo -linked to Daniel Ochy- and the complaint presented before the National Assembly by Pameñista deputy Jorge Iván Arrocha on the acquisition of media conglomerates, through the company New Business.

He argued that the prosecution had no power to do so since this could only be decided by a judge.  In a Judgment of January 19, 2018, Judge Baloisa Marquínez rejected the argument, stating that the prosecution incorporated both complaints in a single file because they are the same acts.

In the resolution, the judge details that the Public Prosecutor’s Office complied with the law, that the Judicial Code indicates “that for a single act a single process will be followed” and that this case has not shown that the prosecutor’s decision constitutes a cause of nullity of the process.

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