Martinelli defense calling 28 witnesses
The high-end defense team of Ricardo Martinelli has produced a list of 28 witnesses testimonial and 64 documents that will be used to attempt to disassociate the ex-president from charges of unauthorized interception of communications by the National Security Council (CSN), and embezzlement between 2012 and 2014.
In the list of witnesses presented by Carlos Carrillo and Sidney Sitton, at the Friday, September 14 hearing are Julio Moltó, Gustavo Pérez, and Alejandro Garuz. Moltó served as director of the CSN from July 2010 to March 2012; Pérez, from March to September 2012, and Garuz, from September 2012 to July 2014. Garuz is related by marriage to Martinelli.
The defense will also call as witnesses former agent Ronny Rodríguez and his assistant William Pitti. Both are fugitives from trial in the 16th Criminal Court in which Perez and Garuz are charged with wiretapping.
Pérez, Garuz, and Moltó are also witnesses of the prosecuting magistrate, Harry Díaz,
The defense included as witnesses at least 16 CSN officers, the Comptroller’s Office and the National Police, which are also witnesses of the prosecution.
Until now, the defense has not mentioned as witnesses Demetrio Papadimitriu and Roberto Henríquez, ministers of the Presidency in the last government, who are among the witnesses that Díaz will call.
Magistrate Harry Diaz stated in the indictment that Pérez, in his January 2015 investigation by the Auxiliary Prosecutor’s Office said that the CSN operated an “intelligence group that reported directly to the president “, who was then Martinelli.
Pérez confirmed to the prosecutor’s office that Ronny Rodríguez, a member of the National Police in the CSN, “delivered envelopes directly” to Martinelli, in the Presidency, on the wiretapping of more than 150 people.
Also In the list of witnesses are the deputy commissioner of the National Police Gustavo Chong Hon and commissioner Belsio González, former chief of the National Aeronaval Service.
