Panama’s Odebrecht Trial: Sixth Day of Hearing Shows No Progress and is Suspended until Monday January 26

Panama: The trial for the Odebrecht case, which was entering its sixth day of hearings this Thursday, a day that, according to Judge Baloisa Marquínez, would begin with the presentation of testimonial evidence before the courtroom of the First Liquidation Court of Criminal Cases, where 28 defendants are being tried, was suspended.  The reason? One of the defendants and his lawyer, Jaume Pamies Dolade, failed to appear. Pamies Dolade did not connect virtually, and his lawyer, Abdel Almengor, did not attend the courtroom. The assigned public defender had submitted excuses on January 15th for his absence.  Thus, the hearing proceeded on its sixth day, which took no more than an hour and a half.

This situation led the judge to declare that the proceedings could not continue due to his absence. Previously, the judge had called a 20-minute recess to await the arrival of Abdel Almengor, Pamies Dolade’s lead attorney, but he failed to appear. Consequently, the judge fined him $100 for not providing an excuse.  Additionally, several of the defendants who were participating virtually stated that they could not hear Judge Marquínez or the proceedings of the hearing.  It should be noted that, at this stage of the proceedings, the defense attorneys have already refuted the extraordinary evidence presented by the Public Prosecutor’s Office and, in turn, submitted their own extraordinary evidence.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office has yet to announce its position on the defense’s extraordinary evidence.  The Odebrecht case is considered the largest corruption scandal in Latin America. In Panama, the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office based its investigation on the confession of the Brazilian construction company, which admitted to paying more than $59 million in bribes to officials and political operatives between 2009 and 2014 in order to secure lucrative contracts.