Frontman for former finance minister remains in jail

José Luis Saiz Villanueva, one of those involved in the Odebrecht bribery case, will remain in prison after the First Superior Court of Justice did not admit protection of constitutional guarantees filed by Saiz against the decision of the Superior Court of Appeals to send him to prison, after the breach of the penalty and collaboration agreement for which he had to return to the State $750,000.

The ruling, under the presentation of Judge Ariadne M. García and dated August 22, concluded that no violation of Saiz’s constitutional guarantees was observed. The court indicated that, when examining the recording of the hearing, no indications were perceived to agree to review the decision of the Court of Appeals, since there was no violation of the guarantees of the accused.

Saiz is serving a sentence of 47 months in prison because he did not comply with the collaboration agreement and sentence that he agreed with the Public Ministry, on December 18, 2017.

In the agreement, Saiz confessed to having been a figurehead for the former Minister of Economy and Finance, Frank De Lima, and, as such, served as an intermediary to receive at least $7 million from Odebrecht.

Odebrecht trial
The preliminary hearing of the Odebrecht case is scheduled for September 12 to 30; this, after it was suspended on July 18 due to the absence of several defense attorneys who presented medical excuses.

At that time, the anti-corruption prosecutor Ruth Morcillo announced that she will request a summons to trial for 50 people investigated for alleged money laundering, including former presidents Ricardo Martinelli (2009-2014) and Juan Carlos Varela (2014-2019).