PANAMA CITY, Nov 21, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – A court in Panama on Friday threw
out a sentence that acquitted former president Ricardo Martinelli of illegal
wiretapping and corruption, and ordered him to face a new trial.
The attorney general’s office said in a statement on Twitter that the
Superior Court of Appeals had upheld an appeal for the annulment of last
year’s sentence that acquitted the 68-year-old ex-president, who held office
between 2009 and 2014.
Martinelli, who is seeking to run again in 2024, tweeted to claim the new
trial will boost him politically.
“Today I understood that I will be president of Panama in 2024. Without
fights there are no victories,” he wrote.
Plaintiffs such as Mitchel Doens disagreed. “It’s something positive, in
that the case has not been closed and there is a second chance to show that
this man spied on his political opponents using state resources and violated
human rights,” said Doens, the former secretary general of the Democratic
Revolutionary Party, which was in opposition to the Martinelli government.
In August 2019, a court found Martinelli not guilty of using public funds
to record private conversations in order to intimidate rival politicians
while in office.
Prosecutors had accused him of spying on about 150 politicians, trade union
leaders and journalists, and demanded a sentence of 21 years.
Martinelli fled the country for the United States just days before the
corruption probe was launched in 2015.
He settled briefly in Miami, but was detained by US authorities in 2016 and
extradited to Panama a year later.
“That Martinelli could be convicted is a great advance for Panamanian
justice. Although I still have some degree of skepticism, one cannot lose
confidence in justice,” said Doens.