Ex-lawmaker gets preventive detention in money laundering probe

The Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor yesterday ordered the arrest and provisional detention of former Panamenista deputy and lawyer Jorge Alberto Rosas part of the investigations into the payment of Odebrecht’s bribes.

Rosas, cited for the third time in for money laundering in by prosecutor Zuleyka Moore turned up late. He accepted article 25 of the Constitution, which says that no one is obliged to testify in a criminal matter

The former deputy arrived at the prosecutor’s headquarters at 10:45 am,  for his 9 am appointment along with his lawyer Juan Carlos Guerra. Almost six hours later he was taken to a cell of the Directorate of Judicial Investigation of the National Police.

Guerra said the prosecutor chose the most serious measure on the grounds that there are sufficient elements of conviction in the file and that his client could escape the investigation of money laundering.

He described the measure dictated by Moore as “arbitrary” and argued that it did not take into account that Rosas is “diabetic” and that has had “six bypasses”.