The tangled record of re-elected Supreme Court president
AGAINST ALL ODDS, Judge Jose Ayu Prado was re -elected president of the Supreme Court (CSJ), on Monday, January 4 shocking the public and representatives of civil society, because of cases and denunciations that have arisen during his tenure say TV and Media reports.
Jose Ayu Prado has been judge of the Court since 2013 after being appointed by Martinelli. Prior to that, he served as Attorney General a position that involved the initiation of investigations into the free transfer of land in Paitilla to florist César Segura which involved former Martinelli insider Gabriel Btesh (who has now fled the country because of links to another corruption scandal). and the free transferof 54 hectares of land in Juan Hombrón, Cocle, on behalf of companies of former Minister of the Presidency Demetrio Papadimitriu.
Both investigations ended archived in the Second Higher Criminal Court.
Among the cases that have been linked to Prado, is a complaint lodged by ex-judge Alexis Ballesteros, on charges of influence peddling and abuse of authority, where he allegedly received pressure to rule in favor of relatives of former president Ricardo Martinelli.
In that complaint, Ballesteros also mentioned judges Wilfredo Saez, Secundino Mendieta, the former judge of the Supreme Court, Alejandro Moncada Luna (now jailed) and ex Tourism Authority, manager Salomon Shamah
Prado was also linked to the scandal of the Pacific Financial brokerage (FP). The former FP employee of Mayte Pellegrini, accused of financial crimes, said Ayu Prado as Attorney General drafted the statement in which she denied that the president Martinelli was linked to the High Spirit account, which has been linked to Aaron Mizrachi, brother in law of Marinelli. Mizrachi has also fled the country. Hamah’s name also surfaced and both men allegedly promised her release from derention if she withdrew her allegations.
Another controversial fact was when the lawyer Rosendo Rivera, at the time legal advocate for Martinelli said that when Ayu Prado was prosecutor, he used responses from a questionnaire sent by the Seventh Circuit Prosecutor to the ex-president as part of the charge he filed against the political leader Balbina Herrera.
The political leader was sentenced to three years in prison for disclosing emails in which Martinelli spoke with Italian Valter Lavítola about purchasing security equipment from Finmeccanica.
Ayu Prado was declared unable to be investigating judge in the investigation involving Martinelli using insider information to buy shares of Petaquilla mining, using three accounts at the brokerage Financial Pacific. The impediment came after criticism from civil society.
Prado currently has eight cases pending resolution in the Credentials Committee of the National Assembly.
Financial Pacific
In October 2015, the plenary of the Supreme Court decided to separate his role as Judge of Guarantees, after the request made by a note sent to the full members.
In the document, Ayu Prado suggested analyzing whether the file on the purchase and sale of shares of Petaquilla, should be under the Judicial Code of 1986 or under the Penal System adversarial process. In this case the president Ricardo Martinelli is linked.
On the same record (Financial Pacific), Ayu Prado has been harshly questioned by Mayte Pellegrini.
Pellegrini has repeatedly said that “with this record nothing t going to happen, because it was he (Ayu Prado), who was commissioned to entangle all the known truths.”
In the notorious cases of wiretaps, made in the administration of Ricardo Martinelli, Judge President Jose Ayu Prado hesitated to decide whether or not, to issue an arrest warrant.president.
The official claimed at the time that its decision was given in order to “ensure transparency in the process.”
Unexpectedly, the re-elected president of the court was also a victim of wiretapping, according to confidential information to which TVN Noticiasalready had access.
In December 2015, two other complaints were submitted to the National Assembly against t, Jose Ayu Prado.
These allegations were brought to the legislature by attorney David Sitton, due to the alleged commission of crimes against public administration. Sitton filed the complaint on behalf of separated judge, Juan Domingo Ibarra.
Ayu Prado met with the judges Efre Tello, Milixa Cossu Judith Hernandez and Herrera to address the issue of non-repayment of Ibarra, prompting the filing of complaints.
In August, Ayu Prado was not interested in re-election, but did not rule it out completely.
Meanwhile, the Citizens Alliance for Justice, made a request to the National Assembly to investigate his extensive travel.
In a statement, the organization reported that officials were earning a high salary, they had traveled more, so consider that if an irregularity is found, it could be committing an offense against public administration.
