Criminal electoral jurisdiction a safe-conduct for corruption

More voices condemn the controversial ruling of the Electoral Court (TE) that would leave Ricardo Martinelli unpunished in the legal cases of New Business and Odebrecht.

The Citizen Alliance for Justice,  the Panama arm  of Transparency International in a forceful statement, denounced that the magistrates Heriberto Araúz, and Alfredo Juncá, weakened the action of criminal justice allowing the Electoral Court to become “a safe conduct for corruption” reports La Prensa

The Citizen Alliance, a civil organization with more than 20 years of existence, also rejected “any invocation of the principle of specialty as a pretext to avoid the action of justice”, and stated that as it stands, the criminal electoral jurisdiction is a shield “corrupt and unnecessary” for the effective conduct of internal electoral processes of political parties and movements.

On the contrary, reports La Prensa President Laurentino Nito Cortizo, and Vice President José Gabriel Carrizo, avoided questioning the ruling, and with ambiguous speeches in which they mentioned the words democracy and institutionalism, they avoided the matter.

In addition to avoiding Martinelli’s trial for the New Business and Odebrecht cases, the recent TE ruling has the political effect of putting the former president in the presidential race heading for the 2024 elections.