Ex-president Martinelli moves to muzzle media coverage

Former President Ricardo Martinelli owner of his own media conglomerate and facing along with his son multiple criminal investigations has requested “protection and restraining measures” to prevent various media from reporting on him, his family members, and judicial proceedings.

He filed a  complaint  Saturday night, September 5, at the Metropolitan Prosecutor’s Office against Mauricio Valenzuela, of the digital site Foco Panamá, for the alleged commission of crimes against the right to privacy, against freedom, and against economic assets, to the detriment of the former president.

“I request protection and removal measures, and that neither I nor my family can be referred to on social networks such as TVN, La Prensa, Mi Diario and Radio Panamá, which although they are not owned by him, he uses as if they were his, and that he is not near my house or my office and less of me, “says Martinelli in his testimony before the prosecution.

The deputy prosecutor Estelabel Batista Franco considered it appropriate to “adopt without delay” the request of the complainant and sent a letter to the National Police of the San Francisco area to provide “special protection” to Martinelli, who as former president already has bodyguards from the Institutional Protection Service (SPI).

Valenzuela accuses the agents and Martinelli of having attacked him when he was filming them leaving a  La Morena restaurant, in Vista Hermosa, late in the afternoon on Saturday, September 5.

It is not the first time that the Martinelli family has tried to hinder the work of the media reports La Prensa.

The former first lady of the Republic Marta Linares de Martinelli filed a lawsuit for family protection against La Prensa. On June 22,  which was rejected by Judge Alba Flores Musmanno.

This claim was based on publications of La Prensa, in which part of the criminal investigations carried out by the authorities of the Public Ministry regarding the alleged relationship of the brothers Ricardo Alberto and Luis Enrique Martinelli Linares –  with the payment of bribes by the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.

The brothers have been detained in Guatemala since last July 6, waiting to be extradited to the United States, which accuses them in a New York federal court. of money laundering and conspiracy to launder money,