In order to receive opinions from criminal experts at the national level and from international exhibitors (El Salvador and Colombia), on the importance of the Bill for the Extinction of Ownership of Illicit Assets, an International Forum was held this morning on this topic.
The president of the Government Subcommittee, Deputy Corina Cano, stated that the experts’ points of view would be heard in the forum and recommendations would be accepted and, if necessary, modifications regarding the Domain Forfeiture.
This bill seeks in the first instance to establish a legal framework that allows the State to recover assets acquired illegally, strengthening the mechanisms of administration of justice.
Cano said that the national criminal lawyers will give their perspective on this issue in order to harmonize the bill with what is established by the National Constitution.
Security Minister Juan Manuel Pino, who also participated in this Forum, stated that this project is of vital importance to prevent money laundering, tax evasion, organized crime and delinquency.
“It is a project, I would say non-controversial and I am going to say it in Panamanian language, that gives more than four the goosebumps…Two benefits are to compensate the great damage that organized crime has done to the social part and the The main benefit is to reduce those organized groups that are having an impact on the financial and economic aspects, because Panama cannot be a country of drug traffickers, it will not allow it; Panama cannot be a country of drug traffickers,” Pino said.
During the forum, the lawyer and professor Gilberto Boutin highlighted that Bill 625, which adopts this legislation, threatens democracy.
For his part, Professor Miguel Angtonio B ernal, stated that to start this project, Panama needs honest judges since this is what is most scarce in the Judicial Branch.
