Martinelli pardons include police accused of murder

NINE POLICEMEN charged with the deaths of five teens who burned to death in a juvenile detention center, are among the list of pardons granted by former president Ricardo Martinelli.
Police officers were filmed yelling “burn, burn” while the detainees screamed for help.

The Minister who signed the Martinelli decree on his last day in office, has said she was unaware the officers were on the list.
 Attorney General Ana Belfon said that the recent pardons granted to persons charged or convicted of criminal offenses are unfair and said she instructed prosecutors to exercise the resources the law gives them to oppose the measure.
Belfon, during a meeting with Security Minister Rodolfo Aguilera said that prosecutors are instructed to follow “the Criminal Procedure Code and the Penal Code outline when pardons are valid.”
According to Belfon “pardons cannot be applied in the case of persons convicted or prosecuted for common crimes.”
She said prosecutors who receive any request from a lawyer to apply for a pardon for common crimes, are to use the tools that the law and the Constitution allows.
Only those accused for political offenses qualify, since the country’s laws say so.
A WICKED ACT
Esmeralda Troitiño, former Supreme Court judge said the pardoning of those involved in the deaths of five young people in the Tocumen Compliance Center is an “unworthy and wicked” act, which must be attacked with all possible legal tools so that this does not go unpunished.
Troitiño noted that the Supreme Court has set precedent for pardons, when it comes to criminal offenses.
She said there are clear legal and constitutional provisions that have been violated by issuing pardons which include common crimes that carry prison terms, such as murder
Meanwhile the former head of Labor and Workforce Development Alma Cortés,said via Ttwitter, that she was unaware that in the list of pardons, had included the police involved in the fire at the Compliance Center.
Cortes, who was the minister who signed the presidential decree said that she has always opposed pardons in cases of murder, drug trafficking and arms trafficking.
So far, says La Prensa Cortés is the only ex- minister of the Martinelli government of who has given an opinion on the pardons granted.
Relatives of the five children who died  in the Compliance Center fire on January 9, 2011, on Friday, July 4 made a formal request to the Second Superior Court not to apply the presidential pardons given by Martinelli for the nine policemen.

The petition was filed by attorney Carlos Herrera Morán, defender of the families of the victims. 
The document, indicates that nine police officers are accused of common crimes, such as murder, attempted murder, harassment and cruel treatment
Based on it, the presidential pardons have no legal viability because the police are not accused of political crimes.
Herrera Morán said that granting a presidential pardon must be a final judgment, duly executed. In the case of the police, they are pending trial.
Based on it, the presidential pardons warn that no legal viability because the police are not accused of political crimes.
Herrera Morán said that to be granted a presidential pardon must be a final judgment, duly executed. In the case of the police, they are pending  trial.

Based onthat, the presidential pardons haveno legal viability because the police are not accused of political crimes.

Eric Jackson,  Panama News, pointed out that during his first four years in office  Martinelli pardoned some 120 police officers, “many for accidental but negligent shootings, but some for deliberate and legally unjustifiable acts of violence.”