Ex-Finance Minister exits holding cell

Former Panama Finance Minister  (MEF) Frank de Lima  under investigation for alleged anomalies in a contract for the maintenance of the parking lots of the Tocumen International Airport, while he was in office.

He has been released from preventive detention by The plenary of the Supreme Court (CSJ) which declared his arrest legal but replaced the detention with country arrest ( impediment of leaving the country and ordered to report on  the 15th and 30th of each month). He will be not be allowed to change his place of current residence.

De Lima was being held in prison by the National Police for the investigation of the anomalies in a contract for the maintenance of the parking lots of the Tocumen airport.

As head of the MEF  he served as president of the board of Tocumen S.A., a company that runs the Panamanian air terminal.

The Anti-corruption Discharge Office of the Public Prosecutor is investigating  for the supposed commission of crimes against public administration,(embezzlement)  because an audit by the Office of the Comptroller General the Republic determined that the airport stopped receiving $ 1.9 million between October of 2011 and July of 2014.