Lawmaker faces $5 million embezzlement hearing

CD  deputy Carlos Tito Afú one of Panama’s most controversial lawmakers, accused of using nearly $5 million of state funds to assure his continued access to the National Assembly cookie jar in 2014, is facing judgment by the Supreme Court after a  fifth criminal judge, forwarded the file containing details of his alleged  embezzlement

The case originated with the Electoral Tribunal annulment of Afu’s election in  Las Tablas for using state resources for his campaign.

The decision was taken by judge Enrique Paniza when ruling on  a request from the Anticorruption Public Prosecutor’s Office to join the case involving Afú with one related to the audits of the communal boards of the whole country where multi-millions of state money were siphoned off for dubious or non-existent projects.

Paniza was inhibited from joining the two cases but decided to send the one related specifically to Afu to the higher court.

The complaint originated with the decision of the Electoral Tribunal (TE) to annul the proclamation of Tito Afú as a deputy in the   May 2014 elections after verifying that he used almost $5 million of state funds for his political campaign, and a  new election was called.

Afú, who had spent years oiling the local political scene where gifts to voters shine more brightly than policies defeated Díaz again and was re-elected for the period 2014-2019.

The complaint that Diaz originally brought was to the Anticorruption Office of the Public Ministry which asked the Fifth Criminal Court to merge the file with the one related to the investigation of the communal boards in both cases for alleged embezzlement.

In an  August 16 ruling, the process related to Afú  was sent  to the plenary of the Supreme Court where  cases