Court unanimously rejects Martinelli appeal

In a unanimous decision, the three judges of the Superior Appeals Court rejected an appeal by the Defense team of Ricardo Martinelli in a last-gasp attempt to avoid a retrial of the illegal wiretapping case set for June 22.

The decisions were based on the fact that they reminded the defense of the ex-president that the matter of the imputation in the case was already dealt with in a ruling of the Supreme Court of December 7, 2018.

The Supreme Court ruled that everything done in the intermediate phase of this process, known as the punctures, was valid.

This means that the trial scheduled for June 22 remains.

The Superior Court of Appeals made up of magistrates Miriam Jaén, Gladys Moreno, and Adrián Hernández, decreed a recess until 4:00 pm Friday, June 4, to resolve an appeal presented by the defense of former President Ricardo Martinelli, accused in the case punctures.

The defense requested in its appeal that a ruling by a guarantee judge who did not accept a request for prescription of the criminal action, in this case, be rejected.

During the hearing, which began at 8:30 am, the prosecutor Alexis Medina and the plaintiff lawyers Yovan Jaramillo, Carlos Herrera Morán, David Cuevas, Rosendo Rivera and Carlos Herrera Delegado participated. The defense was in charge of Alma Cortés.

During the hearing, which was held virtually, Cortés argued that the criminal action is already prescribed, because the facts investigated date back to 2012 and 2014.