Martinelli and co-conspirators have 15 days to formalize appeals against jail terms   

The Superior Court for Settlement of Criminal Cases has given a period of 15 business days to the lawyers of Ricardo Martinelli and four other defendants to formalize their appeals against the sentence that condemns them to prison for money laundering in the New Business case.

The decision was adopted on November 2 but made known as of November 7, through an edict. The edict will be lifted on November 15, at 10:00 am, and then the period of 15 business days begins to run to present, and the appeal announced by Martinelli’s lawyers,  and lawyers for Daniel Ochy, Janeth Vásquez, Iván Arrocha, and Valentín Martínez Vásquez.

The five were sentenced on July 18 by Baloisa Marquínez, of the Second Liquidation Court of Criminal Cases. Martinelli was sentenced to 128 months in prison and ordered to pay $19.2 million. Meanwhile, Ochy was sentenced to 96 months in prison; Martínez, to 80 months; Arrocha, to 70 months, and Vásquez, to 60 months. Another 10 defendants were acquitted, a decision that was appealed by prosecutor Emeldo Márquez.

Judge Marquínez’s sentence was confirmed by judges Manuel Mata Avendaño, José Hoo Justiniani, and Eyda Amarilis Juárez, of the Superior Liquidation Court, on October 24.

As it was a 181-volume file, he gave each of the defenders a copy of it on a USB memory, “for logistical and security reasons.”

One of the copies was also delivered to Kathia Vélez, who represents the company Excavaciones del Istmo, SA, which is recognized by the court as an incidental third party.

A current account and a fixed-term deposit were seized from Excavaciones del Istmo, both in the Banco Internacional de Costa Rica, SA (Bicsa), on July 14, 2017, by order of the Public Ministry.