At 9:00 a.m. this Tuesday, the reading of the Fiscal Hearing of the Odebrecht case will continue, in which 80 sheets (pages) have already been advanced and once the arguments are completed to support the link of the accused by part of the team of prosecutors of the Public Ministry.
The Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office with the superior prosecutors Ruth Morcillo and Mahmad Daud Hasan, in addition to those of the Jenisbeth Malek Circuit, Thalía Palacios and the deputy prosecutor Olmedo Gómez, participated since Monday, September 12, in the beginning of the preliminary hearing of the case Odebrecht, in the Third Criminal Court Liquidator in charge of Judge Baloisa Marquínez.
The hearing began with the presentation of 8 incidents, including nullity, prescription, res judicata, specialty principle, recusal, among others, and a habeas corpus.
Regarding the incidents presented, the judge, Baloisa Marquínez, indicated that they had already been presented and validated in the preliminary investigation stage, as was also indicated by the prosecutor Ruth Morcillo, who asked the judge to continue with the development of the hearing and that there are no undue delays in the process.
Of the incidents, only the statute of limitations was admitted for three former ministers, from the government period 2009 and 2014, for the crime of corruption of public officials, which was not objected to by the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, since the time for this elapsed, from on December 9, 2020 and the penalty for these crimes is less than 6 years in prison; however, they continue to be prosecuted for the crime of money laundering at this hearing.
The hearing continued with the reading of the tax hearing of the file on the Odebrecht investigation, which indicates the payment of 59 million balboas as bribes and 33 million of these deposited in accounts in different countries, in order to acquire the guarantee for the construction of projects in Panama.
The Public Ministry requests that 50 people (49 individuals and 1 legal entity) be prosecuted for the alleged commission of the Crime Against the Economic Order, in the form of money laundering, typified in Book II, Title VII, Chapter IV of the Penal Code , which establishes a sentence of 5 to 12 years in prison (articles 254 and 255) and 5 to 10 years (article 256) respectively.
In this case, 8 effective collaboration agreements were signed and there are 12 people with convictions, agreed by means of a penalty agreement.
As for the collective Habeas Corpus presented by a defense attorney, the judge at the end of the assignment on Monday indicated that it was notified of it and that it is in process to answer the resolution issued by the Superior Court for the Settlement of Criminal Cases; however, the hearing will continue since it would be made available to the Court in the case of detained persons, but in this case there are no persons with this precautionary measure.
