Court rejects Martinelli ‘New Business’ appeal

An amparo of constitutional guarantees that had been presented by the legal defense of former President Ricardo Martinelli, was not admitted by the First Superior Court of Justice.

The brief went against the decisions of the second judge for Criminal Cases, Baloisa Marquínez, of May 25, when the third day of the trial took place in the New Business case for the alleged irregular purchase with public funds of the Panama América Editorial group. SA (Epasa).

The legal defense of the ex-president, sentenced in the case to 128 months for the crime of money laundering, alleged that the judge did not exercise her authority by failing to obtain the appearance of two defense witnesses at the May 25 hearing, says in a statement from the Judicial Branch  It also detailed in the information that Martinelli’s legal team assures that the defendant official has violated [the defense] right to interrogate the evidence of the charges, the testimonial evidence that intends to incriminate him, and that it was the duty of the judge to ensure that the confrontation or interrogation with the proof of charges took place, for which reason the judge curtailed the free and full exercise of the right of the defense to question the witnesses”.

The magistrates who dealt with the issue were Guimara Aparicio Ortega (speaker), Lilianne Ducret, and Melina Robinson who considered the inadmissibility of the Amparo since “the harmful and transcendent characteristics that justify the admissibility of this constitutional action are not noted” and therefore, Judge Marquínez did not violate the constitutional guarantees.

” According to the court, for an act to qualify with a view to the admissibility of its challenge under amparo, it is necessary that it be capable of injuring, affecting, altering, restricting, threatening or undermining a fundamental right, provided not only in the Political Constitution, but in international conventions and treaties on human rights in force in the Republic of Panama, also in the law, and that its harmful content affects the rights and constitutional guarantees of a specific person… “informs the OJ .

The Court’s magistrates also warn that the use of Amparo as a means to question evidentiary matters is only appropriate in exceptional cases in which a fundamental right or guarantee has been violated by reason of an arbitrary sentence or by a sentence in which there is a lack of motivation or poor argumentation.

Sentence
Martinelli was convicted by a ruling on July 17, along with Janeth Vargas Vásquez, Daniel Ochy, Iván Arrocha Chevalier, and Valentín Martínez Vásquez for the alleged crime of money laundering.

In the same ruling, Judge Marquínez decided to acquit Iván Clare Arias, Aaron Ronny Mizrachi, Gonzalo Germán Gómez, Nicolás Corcione Pérez Balladares, Vernon Salazar Zurita, Salomón Btesh Btesh, Jack Btesh Hazan, Leo Cohen Mugrabi, José Carlos Pérez Balladares and Marcos Angel Acric