The start of the trial for the ‘Panama Papers’ is postponed once again

The scheduled start this Monday of the trial for the so-called ‘Panama Papers’one of the largest leaks of documents in history that linked personalities from around the world to money laundering through the Panamanian firm Mossack Fonseca, was postponed once again by the Panamanian Judicial Body (OJ), placing it in the alternate date from April 8 to 26.

The trial is postponed to the alternate date in April, judicial sources confirmed to the few journalists gathered at the headquarters of the Judicial Branch.

This entity had announced at the end of last year, before the expected start of the trial in December that had already been previously postponed, that the court had set a new hearing date from February 19 to March 8, and the alternate date from April 8 to 26.

The lack of activity at the headquarters of the Judicial Branch, where EFE was located early in the morning, already foreshadowed the announcement of the alternate date, in a country also focused on the electoral campaign for the next general elections on May 5 .

Continuous delays

There are already several and prolonged delays in this case ‘Panama Papers’ for which lawyers Jürgen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca Mora, founders of the defunct law firm at the heart of the scandal known worldwide as the ‘Panama Papers’, will be brought to trial, accused of alleged money laundering.

This money laundering process began with the publications of an international journalistic investigation that leaked in 2016 details about financial transactions made through thousands of offshore corporations created by the Mossack Fonseca firm and linked to people in 200 countries and 21 financial jurisdictions, according to a report from the Public Ministry (MP, Prosecutor’s Office) of Panama.

Thus, through corporate and financial schemes, “illicit assets and their real beneficiaries were hidden, promoting the laundering of billions of dollars,” according to this report.

In Panamathe investigation into this case lasted until September 2019, when in his tax hearing the MP asked the court of the case to call 44 people to trial for money laundering, and the dismissal of another eleven.

Although the start of the preliminary hearing was set for no later than November 2020, it was set up a year later and 32 people were called to trial for money laundering, including the two founding partners of the Mossack Fonseca firm.

Due to the management of international assistance, the start of the trial scheduled for December 2021 at the latest was postponed to the beginning of last December, but it was not carried out either “due to notifications that have to be made through international assistance,” as reported. the Judicial Branch.

The leak of the Panama Papers filled 2.6 terabytes and more than 11.5 million documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, affecting more than 140 politicians and senior officials around the world and exceeding the 1.7 million files that the technology consultant and former employee of The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Edward Snowden leaked in 2013.