Five high profile corruption trials in July

Panama Courts are scheduled to hear five high profile corruption cases hearings for acts that occurred in the previous government.

They are under the Inquisitorial System which was still in place when investigations began, soon after  Ricardo Martinelli left office four years ago.

First on stage on Thursday, June 5 is the former General Director of Income (DGA)  Luis Cucalón accused of embezzlement and corruption for the contract Cobranzas del Istmo, for the collection of taxes in the previous government. The case became high profile when one of the witnesses involved in the scam claimed to have delivered suitcases stuffed with as much as $400,000 in cash to the office of then president Ricardo Martinelli.

Cucalon gained additional notoriety by managing to spend two years of his time in “preventive detention” in Panama’s most expensive private hospital until a judge tired of repeated adjournments ordered him transferred to El Renacer prison the current home to a group of former high rollers, including Martinelli.

In another case, Guillermo Ferrufino, former Minister of Social Development, will go to trial on July 16 for the crime of corruption.

Ferrufino who appears to be unable to keep out of the spotlight spent time behind bars, but was released to house arrest and managed to get himself arrested for impaired driving and is now confined to movement in the Province of Panama.

Hoping to delay justice once more Ferrufino now aspires to be nominated as a  (Democratic Change) CD mayoralty candidate in the 2019 elections, a move which under Panama’s quaint electoral rules, will further delay his day in court.

On July 23,   Riccardo Francolini,  Former chairman of the board of the State savings bank  out of jail with $100,000 bail is set to appear at the preliminary hearing for embezzlement in the loan of $50 million dollars granted by the Caja de Ahorros Savings Bank,  one of several corruption cases that he is involved in. He too is a Democratic Change candidate to run for office, this time to take the presidential seat once warmed by his former business partner, Martinelli.

Adolfo Chichi De Obarrio,  the fugitive former private secretary and “messenger boy” of Ricardo Martinelli and four other people, must face a preliminary hearing on July  25 July, for the alleged unjustified enrichment of $3.6 million dollars.

Businessman and Martinelli relative by marriage, Mayer Mizrachi,  with five other people, is due for a preliminary hearing on July 30 for a supposed embezzlement, in the contract for the installation of a messaging program called Criptext.

Both  Ferrufino and Francolini will enjoy electoral privilege if their applications are officialized. If before their  respective hearings The judge  in each case must ask the Electoral Tribunal for the lifting of the jurisdiction