Supervisors of court corruption network suspended

THE JUDICIAL  OFFICIALS who were responsible for overseeing the 12 people allegedly involved in a corruption network within Panama’s Supreme Court have been suspended.

The Second Court handles cases of murder and resolves appeals.

The officials identified as members of the the  network allegedly collected money for influencing judicial decisions

The case became public on November 12 after surveillance and  visual inspections in the Secretariat of the Second Court and in the first and Sixteenth Circuit courts.

Twelve officers were arrested and accused of corruption of public officials for allegedly collecting bribes in exchange for giving freedoms, holding arrest warrants bribing  jurors in murder trials and manipulating  hearing dates.

The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court authorized the tapping of thet  cell phones of the defendants.

Prosecutor  Marcelino Aguilar concluded that variations in the decisions of the judiciary “affected a multitude of system users, who have committed their trust in the fairness of the judicial officer”.

The prosecutor imposed preventive detention on notifiers, Archibold Edgar Jordan, Blas Macre and Rigoberto Rios; clerks Carmen Castro, Rosa Quiroz, Evelio Hidalgo and Ana Barsallo; drivers Gabriel De Leon and Javier De Gracia; and Eduardo Garcia, the latter a former official who worked  in the judiciary until December 2014..Country prison with  bi-weekly reporting was ordered for  executive secretary Kira Puga Ehrman, assistant magistrate Liz Romero and paralegal Carlos Herazo .