Martinelli wields $10 million club against prosecutor

 While the sons of ex-president Ricardo  Martinelli in Guatemala are fighting to avoid extradition to the US to face money laundering charges in an FBI Odebrecht bribery investigation that implicate  “a  high ranking person and  close family connection” during his reign (2009-2014) , he has filed at least six legal actions against anti-corruption prosecutor Tania Sterling, who is investigating him for his alleged participation in the same plot.

There   are  two criminal complaints against the Attorney General’s Office in which he claims $10 million  for alleged “moral, psychological, commercial, business, social, family and political damage.”

In the first, on July 2, attorney Shirley Castañeda alleges that Sterling issued an order of investigation on June 30, against Martinelli, for the alleged money laundering, when days before they had filed an unconstitutionality appeal before the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, using the specialty principle contemplated in the extradition treaty between the US  and Panama.

The second criminal complaint was filed on July 9 by a trio of Martinelli lawyers claiming that Sterling would have committed an abuse of authority and breach of the duties of public servants by ordering a forensic medical evaluation on July 10, which sought to determine whether or not Martinelli presents clinical signs of acute or chronic pathology. This, after on July 8, the former leader presented a medical disability certificate, of two days duration.

On July 10, a challenge against the prosecutor  was placed before the Twelfth Criminal Court, alleging that she “abuses her position by ignoring the medical incapacity of the former president.”

Earlier, on July 2, Martinelli’s defense presented before the same court another challenge against Sterling, on the grounds that the prosecutor had participated in evaluation with the team of lawyers of the American firm Foley Hoag as part of the Martinelli’s extradition process from the United States, on June 11, 2018.

The challenges seek that judge Óscar Carrasquilla declare that there is an impediment for the prosecutor to continue to lead the investigations.

Martinelli has also gone to the Attorney General, Eduardo Ulloa, to filed a complaint against Sterling on July 9, 2020, for ordering the forensic evaluation. 

Oher Demands
Other former officials of the justice system in the sights of  Martinelli are the former attorney general  Kenia Porcell and the two former magistrates of the Supreme Court who took part in his wiretapping probe: Harry Díaz, as prosecutor, and Jerónimo Mejía, as judge of guarantees

On July 9, the Judicial Branch ordered a seizure of property in the Porcell residence, as part of an investigation requested by Martinelli. She stopped that action by posting a bond of $150,000

Sterling has been a key player in the Odebrecht case, a file that has more than a thousand volumes and involves several characters who worked in the Martinelli administration says La Prensa.

Of the group of prosecutors who initially worked,  on the case only she and Ruth Morcillo remain, since Ulloa gave Zuleyka Moore other functions on May 25, alleging that he wanted the citizens and the legal community to understand that the work of the Public Ministry was done with objectivity.

Sources of the Public Ministry say the Martinelli actions will be processed but stressed that prosecutors have a legal and constitutional obligation to prosecute crime.

T his was the same argument given by the prosecutor Emeldo Márquez, who is investigating Martinelli in the New Business case, when on July 15 he decided to reject a letter from Martinelli’s defense that alleged that he was protected by the principle of a specialty that, if applied, meant that the former president could only be investigated in Panama for wiretapping, for which he was extradited from the US. He was declared “not guilty”. The sentence was appealed.

The US  has communicated to the Public Ministry that the principle, based on a 1904 bilateral treaty, is no longer applicable to Martinelli because he has traveled outside of Panama since September 2019.

Meanwhile, the shadow of his son’s extradition to the US and the opening of the FBI files revealing names of their connections in in his administration still loom.