Supreme Court rejects Martinelli recusal ploy

The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of (CSJ) rejected as inadmissible the recusal incident presented by the defense lawyer of former president Ricardo Martinelli against the presiding judge María Eugenia López Arias.

The incident of recusal was presented by attorney, Carlos Carrillo, against López Arias within the process followed by his client.

The edict is dated January 23 and indicates that the ncident is inappropriate.

The incident against López Arias was filed within the extraordinary appeal of cassation because she is a member

The decision of the Criminal Chamber was known on the same day that the former president presented a complaint in the National Assembly against what he describes as manipulation and arbitrariness in the Panamanian judicial system.

Martinelli, who faces a cassation case, accuses López Arias of acting in a biased manner and leaking draft rulings to the media.

On the morning of January 24, Martinelli expressed his concern about the alleged influence of López Arias in his case, stating that “she wants the cassation case to be done her way.”

The request for recusal against López, argued that the judge had an enmity with his client and, therefore, could not participate in the discussion of the appeal that was filed. presented to prevent the sentence imposed on the former president from becoming final for laundering public funds that were used to acquire the shares of Editora Panamá América, SA (Epasa) , in December 2010.

A sentence of 128 months in prison and a fine of $19.2 million, was handed down last July by criminal judge Baloisa Marquínez and ratified in October by the Superior Court for the Settlement of Criminal Cases.