Electoral Tribunal enables Martinelli to dodge trial date

The National Directorate of Electoral Organization (DNOE) of the Electoral Tribunal (TE) approved the holding of an extraordinary national congress of the Realizing Goals (RM) party, at the request of its president, Ricardo Martinelli.

The endorsed calendar is interposed with the hearing that the Third Criminal Court will hold from July 18 to August 5, for the Odebrecht case, a process in which Martinelli and two of his sons are imprisoned and recently sentenced in New York for bribes from thE same company. The date of this emblematic case, with more than 60 defendants, was set seven months ago, on November 1, 2021.

In this way, Martinelli, who is currently protected from the action of justice because he enjoys criminal electoral jurisdiction as a result of the prolongation of an internal electoral process that was held on April 24 would further extend his legal armor reports La Prensa.

The TE published on Friday, June 3, the calendar and regulations for the political event. The date of the congress will be July 24, but the electoral process has already begun with its publication in the Electoral Bulletin 5067. The resolution bears the signature of the person in charge of the DNOE, Ósman Valdés.

Once again, the former president would avoid a court date due to his status as a political leader. The Electoral Court (TE) approved an electoral calendar for his party, Realizing Goals (RM), founded in March 2021, for a new internal process that collides with the dates of one of the most important trials on corruption in the country: the case for the payment of bribes from Odebrecht, in which the former president is one of the defendants.