Former Panana President Ricardo Martinelli (2009-2014) speaking to the press on June 27, 2023
ROBERTO CISNEROS
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The bribery trial in Panama against Brazilian construction group Odebrecht, in which former presidents Ricardo Martinelli (2009-2014), who is seeking a return to power, and Juan Carlos Varela (2014-2019) are charged, has been postponed to 2024. The judiciary reported this on Thursday.
The court has set “July 15 to August 23, 2024” as the main date “for the conduct of the plenary hearing” in the Odebrecht case, the judicial authority said in a statement.
This date is after the general elections that will take place in Panama on May 5 next year.
These elections include former President Martinelli, who is accused of collecting bribes from Odebrecht and, in another scandal, was sentenced to almost 11 years in prison for money laundering in the first instance.
Despite his legal problems, Martinelli is leading in some polls, while his opponents pin their hopes on justice and ultimately bar him from running in the presidential election.
The Odebrecht trial was scheduled to take place from August 1st to 18th, but was then postponed because the judge in charge was still busy evaluating the evidence presented by the prosecution and defense.
The hearing was postponed until last Wednesday, but postponed again a day earlier for the same reason – with no specific date.
The court now says that “the remoteness” of the new date is due to “the need for the court to have adequate time to carry out the complex logistics involved in processing the large volume of evidence presented by the parties”.
Martinelli and Varela, Panama’s last two former presidents, are accused of allegedly receiving money from Odebrecht through shell companies and foreign accounts during their time in office.
Twenty other people are also charged, including several former ministers.
In 2016, the Brazilian construction company pleaded guilty in a US court to distributing more than $788 million in bribes to government officials, officials and political parties, primarily in Latin America.
In Panama, he admitted paying $59 million in commissions in exchange for awarding public works construction contracts.
Two of Martinelli’s sons, Ricardo and Luis Enrique Martinelli, were sentenced in the United States in 2022 after pleading guilty to receiving $28 million in bribes from Odebrecht while their father was president.
However, Martinelli’s children cannot be tried in a regular court in Panama because they have criminal jurisdiction because they are members of the Central American Parliament.
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