Ethics questions for Martinelli defense

Alma Cortés lawyer for former president Ricardo Martinelli facing a retrial for political espionage filed an appeal in favor of her client on the same day that she presented a medical certificate of incapacity and was a no-show at the court on the first day of the trial.

Her action merits a sanction  “for procedural disloyalty,” warned David Cueva s, the lawyer for one of the plaintiffs in the case.

Cortés appealed the sentence of June 18, issued by the guarantee judge María José Urbina, who denied the prescription of the criminal action in the case. Cuevas, who represents Rosendo Rivera, one of the plaintiffs in the process, warned that Cortés filed the appeal precisely on Monday, June 21, the day she was incapacitated.

Cortés presented to the Judicial Office of the accusatory criminal system. at 3:43 pm

The medical certificate that the lawyer presented to miss the trial was for two days: June 21 and 22. It was issued by Doctor Marlon Muñoz, from the Plaza Cecilia Specialized Medical Center, . According to the prosecutor in the case, Ricaurte González, it is a dental clinic.

According to Cuevas, this action “is a lack of procedural loyalty that merits a sanction and an investigation for lack of ethics.” In fact, there is already a date to settle this claim: next Monday, June 28, at 8:30 a.m.

“If she was too ill to go to the trial, it is also assumed that she was too ill to sign any document,” said Cuevas.

Contradictions
This is not the only contradiction in Martinelli’s legal team. As reported by Cuevas, since June 8, Alma Cortés appeared in the process as the only legal representative of Martinelli in this case

However, on June 11, lawyers Carlos Carrillo and Roniel Ortiz presented constitutional guarantee protection before the First Superior Court of Justice against the decision issued by the Court of Guarantees of May 18, 2021, which denied requests of infringement of rights to Martinelli.

While the defense of the ex-president goes to the courts with more resources, the Judicial Organ has asked the Ministry of Health to determine the authenticity of the medical certificates that Martinelli and Cortés presented in order not to attend the trial. The certificate presented by the ex-president was issued on June 1 (for 30 days) by the neurosurgeon Waltter Kravcio Guardia, who appears in several companies with his children.

With the medical certificate, there are also loose ends, it is known that it was issued on June 1, as read in the failed trial, but the medical report issued by Kravcio, which Martinelli’s relatives have published on social networks, says that Martinelli was surgically reoperated on June 20 for spinal surgery.

The Trial Court, appointed Martinelli a public defender, who will be used in the event that Cortés does not attend the trial, rescheduled for July 5.