Beware! Martinelli, The King of Lawsuits

In November 2019, after being declared “not guilty” in the case of the punctures, Ricardo Martinelli sued the then magistrates Jerónimo Mejía and Harry Díaz, the former, a judge of guarantees, and the latter, a prosecutor in the same case, when still the Supreme Court had the jurisdiction to investigate it. Martinelli accused them of abuse of authority and infringement of their public duties. He asked for compensation of $10 million each.

Until July 2020, Martinelli had sued, recused and complained against the special anti-corruption prosecutor Tania Sterling, for the Odebrecht case, in which he is accused. Martinelli demands $10 million for alleged “moral, psychological, commercial, business, social, family and political damage.” Up to two doctors from the Institute of Legal Medicine have been sued by him. He also sued the former attorney Kenia Porcell several times, and his lawyers have filed complaints and lawsuits against former President Juan Carlos Varela, including an alleged murder attempt against Martinelli.

His lawyers have sued and denounced former Vice President Isabel de Saint Malo de Alvarado, who is required to pay $20 million for alleged crimes against honor, abuse of authority, omission of public functions and violation of the right of defense. Varela and De Saint Malo have also been denounced by these lawyers for drug-related crimes.

Also on the list is Rolando López, former director of the National Security Council in the Varela government, as well as Fernando Berguido, former Panamanian ambassador to Italy. To all these complaints are added dozens of complaints against journalists, columnists, the media, cartoonists, bloggers and tweeters. They are tens of millions of dollars more than he demands in compensation.

These cases are far from all. A single person has crammed the system with legal actions that have consequences such as terrorizing, threatening, and self-censorship. But whatever your goals, I’m very curious why you haven’t sued Vice President Gaby Carrizo.

Since Martinelli was summoned to the second trial for the punctures, Carrizo has been singled out by him as the manager behind the scenes of this second episode. “I blame you Gaby Carrizo and [the magistrate] María Eugenia López, you two are responsible,” published Panama America , his main propaganda outlet, quoting the chief. What does Martinelli know about Carrizo? Why are you accusing him of being the one behind your next trial?

Martinelli has the human, legal, financial, and perhaps even factual resources to bring him before a judge and indict him, instead of calling him names and gossiping. I recognize that it would be a trial with little chance of winning, but, at least, the whole country would find out about the plot, which according to him, is against him. So I wonder why the king of lawsuits doesn’t touch Carrizo a hair. What are you afraid of?   Rolando Rodriguez. La Prensa