Former Calidonia Representative Ramón Ashby, Sentenced to 60 Months in Prison for Embezzlement

Ramón Ashby was captured Monday September 30 shortly after 10:00am at a residence in Condado del Rey.  Ashby did not resist arrest by an agent of the Judicial Investigation Directorate of the National Police (DIJ).  The detainee will now be brought before a judge for a sentence execution hearing on October 8, at 10:00 am, in a courtroom of the First Judicial District of Panama, in Plaza Ágora.  The arrest warrant had been in effect since July 18.  Twelve days ago, Ashby failed to appear at a sentencing hearing before Judge Elizabeth Berroa.  His lawyer submitted a medical certificate for alleged “excessive exercise.”  The incapacity was from September 16 to 21. The lawyer proposed that the client participate in the hearing by videoconference, but Judge Berroa denied that request and explained that this would only be possible if Ashby was already in prison.

Previously, the former representative tried to have his prison sentence replaced by work at a health center in Río Abajo.  Ashby’s 60-month prison sentence was upheld by the Second Court of Justice on July 6, 2021. Subsequently, on June 8, 2023, the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice rejected the appeals filed by his defense.  An audit by the Comptroller General of the Republic determined that the Calidonia Communal Board, under Ashby’s administration, did not support expenses totaling $505,355, corresponding to personnel contracts, purchases of goods and services.