Martinelli pays $2 million to avoid fugitive  son’s arrest

The lawyera of ex-president Ricardo Martinelli have posted a $2 million bond to keep   Enrique Martinelli Linares, one of his two fugitive sons from being arrested.  Another $2 million for the second son is likely to follow.

The  bond was granted by the Second Superior Court in a March 6 ruling, as part of the investigation underway with his brother Ricardo Alberto for alleged money laundering related to Odebrecht.

Sources from the and the Public Ministry Judicial Branch confirmed that the ex-president’s lawyers posted the bond and that they are proceeding with procedures to do the same with Ricardo Alberto Martinelli, to whom the court also gave the same benefit and for the same amount.

The anti-corruption prosecutor Tania Sterling filed an Amparo against the bonds, but as it has not been admitted or rejected so far by  Supreme Court Judge  Luis Ramón Fábrega, the defense of the sons moved on the procedures.

The sources told La Prensa that if the Amparo had already been admitted, the process of registering both bonds would have been suspended.

The defense of the brothers  filed an opposition appeal under the constitutional guarantees proposed by Sterling against the decision of the Second Superior Court to grant bonds of $ 2 million to each of them,

The lawyer Carlos Carrillo, who represents the Martinelli Linares brothers, argues in the opposition appeal that Prosecutor Sterling tries to make the Supreme Court a third instance in which the decision of the Superior Criminal Court to access the bail request.

Carrillo, who is also part of the team of lawyers of ex-president  Martinelli, affirms that the constitutional guarantees claim can only be invoked if there is a violation of a fundamental guarantee and can only be filed by the person against whom an order is executed; that is to say, in this case, said power is not the responsibility of the prosecution.

It also refers to bonds granted to people who, like the Martinelli Linares brothers, were outside the country, such as Mayer Mizrachi.

In January 2016, the Second Court granted a release bond of $100,000 to Mayer Mizrachi Matalon, then investigated for the alleged commission of crimes against the public administration.

Mizrachi had been detained in Colombia, following an alert issued by Interpol at the request of the First Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, which was investigating him

In October 2019, the Thirteenth Criminal Court denied an appeal that sought the annulment of the process followed by Mizrachi.

In the Amparo filed on June 11, Sterling alleged that the Second Court did not assess the inattention of both defendants to the process or the seriousness of the crime, their evasive conduct, and their ability to destroy evidence.

She   recalled that, presumably, the brothers had received payments from Odebrecht between 2009 and 2014 -when their father was president  and even earlier.