News

Martinelli’s legal woes are still growing

May 28, 2016

Ricky — Swiss authorities are now investigating him and his two sons. Were he to leave Miami for the Vatican the Swiss Guards would probably not arrest him but he’d have other problems en route. Photo from Ricardo Martinelli’s Twitter feed.

Ex-president’s woes still grow

by Eric Jackson

The Supreme Court put out a warrant for Ricardo Martinelli’s arrest this past December, but just now got around to sending the matter to the Ministry of Foreign Relations for a formal extradition request to the US government. That would be needed to bring Martinelli before the court because for more than one year he has been living in Miami. The case for which the request will be made, one of 15 pending here against the former president, is about illegal wiretapping. A US administration questioned about its own electronic surveillance programs may not want to touch the issue.

Meanwhile in Switzerland, prosecutors are investigating an alleged role that the ex-president and his two sons had in the laundering of Odebrecht bribe money in the international Lava Jato scandal. Panama’s attorney general has sent a prosecutor to Europe to look at the files that mention the Martinellis.