Supreme Court rejects appeal by the son of ex-president

Panama’s Supreme Court of Justice did not admit an Amparo of constitutional guarantees presented by the defense of Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Linares, which sought to prevent him from being investigated by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor in the Blue Apple case.

Under the presentation of Judge María Eugenia López Arias, the Court did not admit the protection of constitutional guarantees presented by Luis Eduardo Camacho González, considering that in the appeal no arguments were presented that support a possible violation of constitutional norms.

The Amparo sought to annul a decision of the Third Liquidator Court of Criminal Cases, which kept in force the order of investigation of Martinelli Linares, issued by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office in the investigation for alleged money laundering through the company Blue Apple.

On August 5, 2021, during the preliminary hearing in this case, the liquidating judge Baloísa Marquínez denied an appeal for annulment filed by Camacho González against the inquiry order issued by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office.

The decision was appealed through the protection of constitutional guarantees before the First Superior Court of Justice, which also rejected the appeal, and the defense of Martinelli Linares appealed before the Supreme Court.

The Court’s ruling highlights that no arguments have been raised to clearly demonstrate how Judge Marquínez violated the constitutional guarantees of Martinelli Linares.

On August 16, the trial of 26  in the Blue Apple case was suspended due to a series of appeals filed by the defense attorneys of several defendants.

In November 2021, Judge Marquínez called 26 people to trial, taking into account the evidence provided by the prosecution, such as the testimony of the former project director of the Ministry of Public Works (MOP), Jorge Churro Ruiz, and the statement of several contractors who obtained projects between the years 2012 and 2014.

Ruiz told the prosecution that Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Linares proposed an operation in which he had to request money from the MOP’s contracting companies, as political support. This statement was later endorsed before the prosecution by the contractors themselves, who reached effective collaboration agreements.

Ruiz added that the former MOP ministers during the administration of former President Ricardo Martinelli Federico José Pepe Suárez and Jaime Ford, had a share in the collections from these companies.

This investigation, which consists of 352 volumes, began on October 30, 2017 and is related to an alleged corruption network, made up of officials, businessmen and lawyers, who -according to the prosecution- requested commissions from contractors for the award of tenders. with the state.

Ricardo Alberto and his brother Luis Enrique Martinelli Linares are currently serving 36 months in prison in a US federal prison, having pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder Odebrecht bribes.

The sentence was imposed after the brothers confessed to laundering at least $28 million in bribes from Odebrecht, using the US financial system following, according to them, instructions from their father.

The Martinelli Linares brothers also appear in the process that Judge Marquínez is carrying out for the Odebrecht bribes. In this case, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office requested to prosecute 49 people and intends to include in its indictment evidence the transcripts and the conviction of Martinelli Linares, issued by Judge Raymond Dearie, of the Court of the Eastern District of New York on May 20.