Judge named for constitutionality lawsuit on Electoral Tribunal ruling

Judge Maribel Cornejo Batista is the rapporteur of the unconstitutionality lawsuit filed by lawyer Linda Guevara González, against the decision of the Electoral Court (TE) to maintain the electoral criminal jurisdiction in favor of former president Ricardo Martinelli  reports La Prensa.

The lawsuit was presented by Guevara, in her own name and representation, was assigned to Cornejo’s office on the afternoon of Tuesday, March 29.

 José Blandón, president of the Panameñista party , announced that this group will also present a similar lawsuit next Monday.

Guevara’s lawsuit asks that the Resolution of March 22, 2022, signed by Heriberto Araúz and Alfredo Juncá , magistrates of the TE, be declared unconstitutional, which suspends a decision of the Second Administrative Electoral Court that, a month earlier, had ordered to lift the jurisdiction Martinelli electoral prison. Judge Eduardo Valdés saved his vote.

Araúz and Juncá’s decision prevents Martinelli from being prosecuted for the New Business and Odebrecht cases.

The claim of unconstitutionality is based on the fact that Araúz and Juncá do not have jurisdiction to decide on the validity of the principle of specialty contained in the bilateral extradition treaty between the United States and Panama , agreed in 1904.

The Department of State of the United States – a country that extradited Martinelli in 2018- stated two years ago that the principle of specialty was no longer applicable to Martinelli, given that the former president had incurred the exception grounds described in the 1904 treaty.

In his saving vote, Judge Valdés warned that it is “totally inadmissible” for the TE to delve into the substantive analysis of the application of the specialty principle.