Way cleared for two Martinelli laundering trials

The cases of New Business and Odebrecht followed by former president Ricardo Martinelli bear no relation to the electoral process of the Realizing Goals (RM) party ruled the second electoral administrative judge, Edmara Lilibeth Jaén when lifting Martinelli’s electoral criminal jurisdiction.

Jaén agreed to the request submitted by the third criminal judge, Baloisa Marquínez.

Marquínez made her requests after on January 28, at the beginning of the preliminary hearing in the New Business case, Martinelli’s defense argued that his client enjoyed criminal jurisdiction, due to internal elections in RM.

The Second Administrative Electoral Court agreed to the request to lift the electoral criminal jurisdiction of the former President (2009-2014) so that he responds to the accusation of alleged money laundering in the cases of New Business and Odebrecht.

In the resolution, dated February 23, Jaén specified that no elements have been found that prevent her from removing the shield since the Odebrecht processes, opened in September 2015, and New Business, started in February 2017, have not been instructed or used to hinder the electoral contest that is currently taking place within the Realizing Goals Party (RM), of which Martinelli is president.

Another of the arguments used by Judge Jaén is the fact that a relationship cannot be attributed between the electoral process to choose the secretariats of Youth and Women of RM, with the facts contained in the files of New Business and Odebecht, since they are not aimed at interfering in the electoral contest of the party.

The judge does not raise it, but the elections arose in the middle of the process, according to documentation that rests in the Electoral Tribunal (TE). The RM board of directors, chaired by Martinelli, approved the election schedule on January 5, 2022, when it was already known that the alternate date for the hearing of the New Business case would be from January 27 to 31, 2022.

To support his arguments, Jaén cites a ruling of the TE of January 24, 2018, in which it is established that “the lifting of the jurisdiction will be viable when the summaries that are instructed do not constitute a judicial mechanism to persecute the citizen by reason of their participation in the electoral process.

Regarding the argument of Martinelli’s lawyers in the sense that the former president would be protected by the principle of specialty contained in the extradition treaty between the United States and Panama, Jaén said that she cannot rule on something that is beyond her competence.

Roniel Ortiz, from Martinelli’s legal team, announced an appeal against Judge Jaén’s decision, which must be resolved by the full Court.

Ortiz alleged that Jaén did not take into consideration that Judge Marquínez had violated due process by not suspending the preliminary hearing on January 28, after being notified of her client’s appraisal.

According to him, Marquínez exceeded her duties by combining (in a single request) the lifting of Martinelli’s jurisdiction at Odebrecht and New Business