13 lawmakers off embezzlement hook

In the absence of “adequate evidence,” the plenum of the Supreme Court of Justice did not admit a multi-million dollars embezzlement complaint against 13 deputies of  Panama’s main political parties.

The complaint was based on a La Prensa investigation that revealed that the deputies managed $14 million in donations,  and subsidies that largely did not reach their beneficiaries, and $68 million in contracts for professional services, which in many cases were not made.

The criminal complaint was filed by the lawyer Carlos Herrera Morán against the deputies of the National Assembly for the alleged embezzlement, through the diversion of public funds that were assigned to them as donations, subsidies, and contracts for professional services.

In a ruling, with a presentation by Judge Efrén Tello dated April 18, the plenary session did not admit the complaint filed on March 30 against former presidents of the Assembly  Rubén De León, of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), and Adolfo Valderrama, of the Panameñista Party, for lack of summary evidence.

The complaint also included Deputies Dalia Bernal, Carlos Afú, and Mario Miller, of (CD); Katleen Levy, Miguel Salas, and Juan Poveda, of the Panameñista Party; Elías Castillo, Alfredo Pérez, Benicio Robinson and Crescencia Prado, of the PRD; and Juan Carlos Arango, of the Popular Party.

The legal action had its genesis in a report published by La Prensa on March 6 and 14,  2017.