(Prensa Latina) Panama’s former President Ricardo Martinelli (2009-2014) is being tried in the New Business case on the second day of the hearing, which he is not attending due to alleged inability.
The investigation is made up of 164 volumes and began in 2017, when the Attorney General’s Office learned about the commission of the crime against the economic order in the money laundering category.
According to district attorney Emeldo Marquez, the New Business partnership was used as a recipient of State funds and then materialized the purchase of the Epasa publishing group, which sponsors news programs such as Panamá América, Día a Día and Crítica, among others.
He explained that these amounts were provided by companies that were granted several infrastructure works. All these actions were implemented from 2009 to 2014.
Some of these works were the Arraijan-La Chorrera freeway, the sports city of the Caribbean province of Colon and the construction of a new building for the National Assembly (Parliament), among others.
According to La Prensa daily, this time the defense team of the billionaire suffered a setback when it tried to prevent his prosecution citing the principle of specialty and Judge Baloisa Marquinez refused to suspend the hearing, which is being held at the headquarters of the Latin American and Caribbean Parliament (PARLATINO, in Spanish).
Be the first to comment