The trials of the main corruption cases in Panama will start this year

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Panama City, 16 Mar The trials of some key corruption cases in Panama, involving former presidents and foreign companies such as FCC and Odebrecht, will begin in 2022 after years of judicial delay, announced Wednesday the Attorney General in Charge, Javier Caraballo. “There was a great deal of just social pressure from a series of high-profile processes that had started several years ago and our institution had not provided an effective response,” Caraballo said during the report of his first year of office. The four cases, which will be brought to trial between April and August of this year, are “New Business”, “Odebrecht”, “Historical Heritage” and “FCC Corredor Brasil section 2”, according to official information. FCC CORRIDOR BRAZIL SECTION 2 The first trial to be initiated is in the case “FCC Corredor Brasil tranjo 2”, a highway project in Ciudad built by the Spanish company with a surcharge of more than 40 million dollars and alleged bribes, according to investigations by the Prosecutor's Office. The hearing of this case is scheduled from 11 to 13 April with a request for an appeal to trial of 11 people for the crime of embezzlement, six for corruption and one for money laundering. The investigation began on May 19, 2017, with a report indicating that the project ended with a $41.7 million surcharge. The final price reached $216.3 million, and the reasonable price, according to the Comptroller's report, should have been $174.5 million. NEW BUSINESS, THE CASE INVOLVING FORMER PRESIDENT MARTINELLI “There were processes such as New Business, which had been opened in 2017 and the investigation period had ended in mid-2020, and in March 2021 the fiscal hearing had not been issued,” said the prosecutor. The trial for “New Business”, involving former President Ricardo Martinelli (2009-2014) for the alleged irregular purchase of a media conglomerate in Panama, will be scheduled to begin on May 19. There are 25 persons charged with the crime against the economic order in the form of money laundering, as detailed in the information of the Prosecutor's Office. The preliminary hearing of this case scheduled for last January was suspended because former President Martinelli alleged that his new party Carrying Out Goals was in elections. “New Business” is related to the purchase of a media conglomerate Grupo Editorial Epasa in 2010 through a complex scheme to launder $43.9 million, involving a dozen local banks, from Switzerland, China and the US. ODEBRECHT CASE: FORMER PRESIDENTS MARTINELLI AND VARELA ON TRIAL “It is complex, extremely long, with more than a million pages,” Caraballo said. Odebrecht's preliminary hearing is scheduled for August 5, with fifty defendants, including Martinelli and former President Juan Carlos Varela (2014-2019), for laundering. The Prosecutor's Office reported in May 2021 that of the 50 people called to trial in the Odebrecht case, “14 are former public servants in general”, and the rest “people who worked to move the money they laundered.” HISTORICAL HERITAGE The hearing of the Historical Heritage Case is scheduled for August 10 and 11 with the call for trial of nine people, including a former minister, a national director, four former officials and three private individuals. According to the Prosecutor's Office, the project, which was tendered under the Martinelli government, had $51.5 million overpriced. The work, also by Odebrecht, “Preservation of Panama City's Historical Heritage” renovated the Fiftieth Anniversary Way, one of the capital's main arteries, near the ruins of Panama Viejo, the first European settlement in the Pacific of America.