Justice ready to knock on Martinelli’s doorM

The US  Embassy in Panama has sent Ministry of Foreign Affairs   – a copy of the note from the US Department of State, which states that former President Ricardo Martinelli is no longer subject to the principle of specialization in matters of extradition.

That means that Martinelli can be investigated, prosecuted and tried in Panama in those cases that are not linked to the cause for which he was extradited by the United States in June 2018: that of the punctures.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs informs that it received today [Friday, January 17, 2020] a note from the Embassy of the United States of America, through which it sends us a copy of the letter that was sent by the Mr. Thomas Heinemann, advisor of the Office of Foreign Affairs of the US Department of State, to the Attorney General’s Office, in which he communicated the official position of his government around the principle of specialty in the case of former president Ricardo Martinelli ” , notes the press release.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through the Directorate of Legal Affairs and Treaties, will communicate “formally” to the Attorney General’s Office about the receipt of the note signed by Heinemann.

The State Department’s note – originally sent to the Office of the Attorney General on December 12, 2019 – states that Panama “is free to bring Mr. Ricardo Martinelli to trial without obtaining an exemption from the Principle of Specialty from the United States” .

It adds that the principle of specialty contemplated in the extradition treaty signed by both countries in 1904 would not apply from now on, since the former president has been allowed to travel outside Panama since September 15.

Martinelli was found not guilty of illegal wiretapping on August 9, 2019, by a Trial Court.  for which he was extradited from the United States in June 2018.

On  Friday, the  Attorney General  G, Eduardo Ulloa, reported that he had already delivered a note of Heinemann’s letter to the anti-corruption prosecutors.

“They will have to determine, according to the state in which each case is, the legal option that they will proceed,” Ulloa said.

“In addition to delivering the note, we exposed [to the prosecutors] a series of details and emphasized that, regardless of the assessment they made, what cannot happen is that the processes stop.

“ We have to keep moving forward, keep guaranteeing citizens that there is really expedited justice. They will determine at the moment if there are merits or not to include Mr. Martinelli in the investigation, but if they do not have it, they have to continue advancing the processes and take them to the moment when they can already act or they can submit that note to the jurisdictional control ”, the AG added.

There are at half a dozen high profile corruption investigations linked to Martinelli and his former inner circle that are sitting in. limbo