Martinelli legal circus upended again

The Public Ministry, represented by the prosecutor Aurelio Vásquez, sustained on Friday, March 22, the accusation against former President  Ricardo Martinelli, for the alleged commission of four crimes: against the inviolability of secrecy and the right to privacy, and two types of embezzlement after a day of fluctuations linked to Martinelli’s sudden jump in blood pressure from a 130/70 early reading which one prosecutor suspected was because he didn’t take his medication, which has happened before,

The accusation brought forward by the prosecution was originally prepared, in October 2015, by magistrate Harry Díaz, then acting as prosecutor, when the case was in the competence of the Supreme Court. The accusation was later modified, but Diaz never varied in his request: 21 years in prison for Marinelli the former president, if found guilty.

In Friday’ hearing, the Trial Court – formed by judges Roberto Tejeira (president), Arlene Caballero and Raúl Vergara – ruled out the participation of Rosendo Rivera as independent plaintiff, since he did not present the corresponding documentation. The Court did recognize Rivera as a victim of the espionage conducted by the National Security Council to 150 opponents in the last two years of Martinelli’s term.

The prosecutor Vásquez presented the summary of the case theory of the case, which are the crimes that are committed by to the defendant and how in the past government the rules were changed so that the National Security Council responded directly to Martinelli, then president of the Republic.

While the prosecutor was speaking, Martinelli was talking with his lawyers Alma Cortés and Jessica Cantó. Occasionally he also addressed one of his sisters, who was sitting behind him. His wife, Marta Linares de Martinelli, had left at noon.

The trial will resume next Monday, March 25. The next day, Tuesday, there will be no hearing, because Martinelli must appear in another process, also in the SPA offices. And Additionally, on Wednesday, March 27, is the hearing in the Fifth Electoral Court, on the challenge to the two candidacies of the ex-president: a deputy for the circuit 8-8 and mayor of Panama.

The trial was set to resume at 9:00 on am this Friday, after being suspended – on March 12 – because Martinelli presented a disability certificate issued by a private psychiatrist.

Finally, it started at 11:00 am, after the former president was examined by paramedics of the Emergency Management System (Sume 911) and a doctor from the Ministry of Health, who determined that he had a blood pressure of 160/90., the court ordered him transferred by ambulance to  Hospital Santo Tomás. However, the Sume 911 applied its emergency protocol and went to the nearest hospital, which is San Miguel Arcángel. 

Martinelli received attention and the audience was able to continue, starting at 3:30 p.m. Previously, the prosecutor had requested that it not be interrupted, and that progress be made with or without the physical presence of the accused, represented by his team of lawyers.