Martinelli targets judges to avoid serving jail sentence

This time it was Ariadne García, judge of the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice , rapporteur of the appeal presented by Ricardo Martinelli’s defense, against the sentence of 128 months in prison for the New Business case.

Accounts on social networks, loyal to the Republic’s former president, direct their darts at the magistrate. “The whole country is watching her. Her actions will let the country, her family, and her friends know whether or not she is a correct official reads in one of the publications.

The strategy of putting pressure on prosecutors, judges and magistrates is not new. It has been one of the main tactics that Martinelli has implemented to avoid any type of criminal responsibility related to his investigations. In most cases, the pressure passes to the courts, a move that civil society calls “judicial harassment.”

Many of these lawsuits have been dismissed. The list is long. Here we present some examples writes La Prensa.

On November 21, 2019, Martinelli went to the National Assembly with his team of lawyers to sue the then judges of the Court, Jerónimo Mejía and Harry Díaz, who acted as guarantee judge and prosecutor in the case of the punctures case . respectively. He accused them of abuse of authority and demanded $5 million each as compensation for alleged damage to his honor.

Months later, on June 4, 2020, his lawyers sued Díaz before the Public Ministry. By then Díaz had finished his term on the Court. Martinelli accused him of having caused him damages due to his actions as prosecutor in the puncture case. He demanded $10 million.

On June 9 of that year, Martinelli returned to the Public Ministry along with his lawyers Alma Cortés and Alejandro Pérez. This time he again denounced Mejía, who had already concluded his term in Court. He accused him of the alleged commission of the crimes of abuse of authority and infringement of the duties of a public servant, in the puncture case.

The next on the list was Kenia Porcell, during whose period in the Attorney General’s Office (January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2019) the first complaints against the former president were received for his alleged connection with conduct classified in the  Penal Code . One of the legal actions against Porcell was filed on July 7, 2020. She accused Porcell of having injured her honor due to an interview that Porcell gave in 2019 in her capacity as attorney. That lawsuit generated a civil seizure for up to $144,000.

At that time, Martinelli and his lawyers gave no respite. In July 2020, they filed six legal actions (complaints, challenges, warnings of unconstitutionality and complaints) against the then anti-corruption prosecutor Tania Sterling, who investigated him for alleged money laundering in the Odebrecht case. With the complaints, he claimed $10 million for alleged “moral, psychological, commercial, business, social, family and political damage.”

The presiding judge of the Court, María Eugenia López, has not escaped harassment either. On April 7, 2023, her lawyer, Alejandro Pérez, reported her to the Assembly for the alleged commission of crimes against the administration of justice and against public servants to alter the hearing calendar and set the trial date for Martinelli in the puncture case, to accelerate procedural phases and ignore stages of the judicial procedures.

Between April and July 2023, former President Martinelli’s team of lawyers presented several appeals to separate Judge Baloisa Marquínez from the New Business case. In April of this year she was challenged for not admitting a series of evidence that they intended to use in the trial.

On May 23, 2023, the first day of the New Business trial, lawyer Oliver Quiel Miranda appeared as Martinelli’s lawyer and immediately filed an annulment motion and challenged Marquínez, after alleging that they had been a couple 17 years ago. Quiel alleged that the issue compromised the impartiality of the case.

On June 8, 2023, lawyer Roniel Ortiz denounced the specialized prosecutor against organized crime, Emeldo Márquez in charge of the New Business case, for the alleged commission of the crimes of falsehood and illicit association to commit a crime.

The complaint filed by Ortiz alleged that Márquez and Marquínez allowed one of the protected witnesses in the New Business case to travel abroad in 2020, despite supposedly having a precautionary measure preventing him from leaving the country.

On June 9, 2023, lawyer Alfredo Vallarino denounced her before the Court of Integrity and Transparency of the Court, alleging that he did not allow the interrogation of the protected witnesses in the New Business case.

Days later, on July 19, 2023, lawyer Alejandro Pérez, representing Martinelli, went to the Public Ministry to denounce Marquínez for the alleged violation of the specialty principle established in the extradition treaty signed between Panama and the United States.

December 11, the former president’s lawyers denounced the judge of the Superior Court of Liquidations, Manuel Mata Avendaño, because he did not admit an appeal against the conviction imposed in the first instance by New Business.

The complaint against Mata Avendaño is based on an alleged alteration of public documents, due to the absence of some pages of the file delivered to the defense in a digital memory.