Court rejects defense pleas in Martinelli trial

On day 19 of the second trial of former President Ricardo Martinelli for illegal wiretapping, the prosecutor’s office read  160 pages of transcripts of conversations of union leaders and opposition political parties tapped by the National Security Council between the years 2012-2014.

The information presented to the court included numerous messages, memes, and montages made by television presenters and opponents of the Martinelli government, prepared, according to the prosecution, with the intention of denigrating and offending them.

During the hearing,  defense lawyer Sidney Sittón objected to the presentation of the booklets, arguing that the documents p did not have authenticated stamps and were therefore illegal, but the prosecution replied that the evidence was already approved in the intermediate phase of the process by Judge Jerónimo Mejía, who acted as a judge of guarantees when the case was in the Supreme Court.

Sittón’s argument was not accepted by the court and it concluded that these objections should have been raised in the intermediate phase of the process and not in the trial.

Martinelli’s defense alleges that both the booklets and the discs that contain the taps are not legal proof, because the chain of custody was violated and some even have alterations in the seal that guarantees that they have not been tampered with.

However, the prosecution pointed out that this situation will be clarified when the expert witness Luis Rivera Calle, who made the transfer of to the reading booklets, appears in court.