Lawyer facing major corrption probes seeks jail release

A Panama lawyer targeted in two major corruption investigations has filed an appeal of habeas corpus with the Supreme Court in an attempt to escape preventive detention.

 Mauricio Cort’s appeal is against the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor who ordered his preventive detention while investigating him for alleged money laundering to the detriment of the Ministry of Public Works.

The process is linked to the alleged payment of bribes through the company Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC).

The appeal has been assigned to Judge Ángela Russo.

This is the second legal remedy presented by Cort before the Supreme Court of Justice, within this process.

On July 10, 2019, he presented a constitutional protection guarantee against the order of investigation issued against him by the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor. The rapporteur is magistrate Hernán De León.

Cort has been detained since June 21, by order of the prosecution.

The investigation began on April 2017, after an audit by the Office of the Comptroller General for the Corredor Sur-via Brasil project, section II, revealed a possible price premium of $41.7 million. The project contractor is FCC.

Cort also appears as charged in the investigation for the bribes that Odebrecht paid. Here he reached a penalty agreement with the prosecution.

This agreement has no relevance in the FCC investigation.