This is a case for which Martinelli had already been tried in 2019 and found not guilty.
Former Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli (2009-2014) was acquitted on Tuesday by an indictment court in a case of alleged illegal spying on opponents
According to the unanimous ruling of the court of the First Judicial District of Panama, no evidence was presented to prove that Martinelli ordered espionage between 2012 and 2014, from the National Security Council (CSN).
“Justice has finally been applied, seven years in this torture, in this ordeal. I thank God and Panamanian justice, I have suffered a lot, “said Martinelli as he left the facilities of the Accusatory Penal System, in Panama City, amid cheers from his supporters and a strong police cordon.
This is a case for which Martinelli had already been tried in 2019 and found not guilty, but an appeals court overturned the sentence in 2020 and ordered a repeat trial.
The 69-year-old former president was facing charges for the alleged commission of the crimes of telecommunications interception and monitoring, persecution and surveillance without judicial authorization of some 150 opponents.
The Prosecutor’s Office had requested the maximum penalty of 8 years.
Martinelli, a supermarket magnate, won the presidency in 2009 with a strong speech against the political class and corruption.
After leaving power in 2014, the Panamanian justice investigated him for multiple scandals during his administration, in which a dozen ministers were detained.
In 2015 he went to live in Miami to avoid the action of justice, but was arrested in 2017 and later extradited to Panama.
He is also accused of money laundering for the purchase, presumably with public money, of a publishing group during his tenure, and the Prosecutor’s Office has filed charges against him for the corruption network linked to the construction company Odebrecht.
His sons Luis and Ricardo Martinelli Linares, detained in Guatemala for a year and about to be extradited to the United States, are involved in this process.
However, he has always defended his presumed innocence and has blamed his detractors for an alleged political persecution to prevent him from running in the 2024 presidential elections. (I)
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