The lawyer and also a victim of the wiretapping cases, Aurelio Barría, analyzed this Thursday morning on Radio Panama, the ruling of the three judges who by unanimous decision acquitted the former president of the Republic, Ricardo Martinelli, who was involved in said process .
The jurist said that the most surprising thing for the victims is that there was clear evidence that the National Security Council acquired by instructions and order of the presidency a sophisticated equipment to intervene cell phones and remote computers, even if they are turned off, equipment that was never authorized by a judge, so it is considered a violation of intimacy and privacy of people.
“At the trial there was evidence that the Security Council recorded or took those recordings and kept them, and passed them on to their superiors. On many occasions before the media and public meetings, the former president stated that he had information on many people in Panama, so how did he receive that information if not for interception and espionage? There were witnesses from people who worked in the Security Council who explained that they had the instruction and superior order to proceed with the interception of almost 150 citizens, ”said Barría.
He added that the system that was used for espionage was not found, since the Security Council officials themselves indicated that after the elections where the party of former President Martinelli lost, whose candidate at that time was José Domingo Arias as president and Marta Linares as vice president, “was taken to the offices of the super 99, in Río Abajo and there they turned themselves in, nothing more is known about those teams.”
At Barría’s consideration, the intellectual actor and the only person responsible was acquitted. “Is incredible. Why did the three judges come to that conclusion ?: out of fear, I think, their incapacity or corruption or it was for the three reasons, those are the answers of what one feels was the result of this trial, which is regrettable and It puts us at the bottom of what is the trust and credibility of the administration of justice in Panama, and puts us on a very bad path towards the cliff where we already are, there is no legal security in our country and that will have its consequences, not only for economic development and investments but in the future of the next elections in 2024 ”, he remarked.
He stated that he was positively impressed by the explanation of the prosecutor Alexis Medina on the last day of the hearing of the final discharges, where for an hour, he documented the evidence, was forceful and was able to demonstrate that throughout the journey there was evidence of the recordings “No one is unaware of the recordings, it was not denied that the Security Council had recorded one, nor did it deny that more than 150 people were tapped, there is evidence that it happened.”
The lawyer feels that the judges did not exactly evaluate the fact that there was no person who could prove that former President Martinelli gave the order, “but when things are obvious, and if I am the head of something that occurred in an organization where it is reported directly where I am the recipient of the espionage information they give me, not only did I order it, I allowed it and I kept it, therefore, it makes me responsible, I do not understand the response and decision of the judges. These ladies were wrong ”.
He specified that this ruling may affect the image of Panama, after the acquitted today informed the public that he was going to be the next candidate of his party for the 2024 elections.
“Everyone has the right, but we already lived a period from 2009 to 2014, a period where the levels of corruption that existed in the country are known, the authoritarian decisions that were taken, I classified it as a civil dictatorship. It has all the resources, but populism and clientelism will prevail in the next elections, that is the risk we have for this country. The future is very uncertain, and I simply consider and echo the words of the lawyer and journalist Rodrigo Noriega who says that we are ‘in a failed state,’ ”he concluded.
