Controversial judge sidelined on vacation

The controversial judge Leslie Loaiza whose frequent decisions in favor of high profile members of the Ricardo Martinelli administration angered civil rights activists has been sent on vacation for seven months at a time when the Fifteenth Court closed as part of the reorganization of the criminal courts of the mixed inquisitive system following the implementation, as of 2016, of the accusatory criminal system.

A number of his judgments remain under appeal.

According to the Judicial Branch, the files of the Fifteenth Court, which closed on June 15, were sent to the Single Registry of Entry, in order to be distributed randomly, to the Tenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth Courts of Panama’s criminal circuit with functions of liquidators.

Loaiza has made controversial decisions in cases such as backpacks, grain, and helicopter rentals, all linked to former officials of the Martinelli government.

On June 15, the Second Court, in charge of Johan Barrios, also closed for the same reasons. The records of this court suffer the same fate as those that rested in Loaiza’s office.

But, unlike Loaiza, Barrios was placed in the Second Court of Justice, as an assistant judge, according to  La Prensa ources.

The transition process is coordinated by the Second Court of Justice.