Ricardo Martinelli has been convicted of cash laundering in his native Panama and sentenced to 10 years in jail.
Panama’s authorities has permitted protected passage for embattled former President Ricardo Martinelli to go away the nation for Nicaragua, after facing prison for cash laundering.
Overseas Affairs Minister Javier Martinez-Acha Vasquez introduced on Thursday that Martinelli can be allowed to go away, citing considerations in regards to the former president’s well being.
Martinelli had beforehand been granted asylum by Nicaragua, and he has been avoiding arrest by sheltering within the nation’s embassy in Panama Metropolis.
Panama’s overseas minister declined to say specifics in regards to the well being considerations Martinelli faces.
“Provided that justice’s timeline doesn’t at all times coincide with well being’s timeline, the Overseas Relations Ministry has determined to recognise the asylum granted to Mr Martinelli Berrocal by the Nicaraguan authorities,” Martinez-Acha Vasquez stated.
“This asylum is recognised and the protected conduct is granted for strictly humanitarian causes.”
Martinelli, 73, has exhausted all appeals in his case after being sentenced in 2023 to 10 years in jail for cash laundering. He additionally acquired a $19m superb within the case.
The conviction led to an finish to Martinelli’s political profession. Final 12 months, Panama’s Electoral Tribunal dominated he could not run in that 12 months’s presidential race
Panama’s structure bars anybody with a felony sentence of 5 years or extra from holding elected workplace. Previous to the ruling, nonetheless, Martinelli was thought of a frontrunner within the race.
Martinelli has at all times maintained his innocence. However prosecutors efficiently argued that he used his affect as president, from 2009 to 2014, to award authorities contracts to firms that then funnelled cash to an organisation known as “New Enterprise”.
That firm was a entrance, prosecutors alleged. They usually stated Martinelli leveraged it to purchase a publishing enterprise that managed nationwide newspapers.
The “New Enterprise” scandal was one in every of a number of controversies Martinelli confronted after leaving workplace.
He and his two sons – Luis Enrique Martinelli Linares and Ricardo Martinelli Linares – have additionally been accused of involvement within the Odebrecht scandal, a world corruption case that ensnared leaders from a number of Latin American international locations.
A former grocery store entrepreneur and standard right-wing determine, Martinelli has remained within the Nicaraguan embassy since February 2024, the place he has used social media to speak together with his supporters.
Panama has, till Thursday, refused his request to go away the nation. However within the lead-up to the Panamanian overseas minister’s announcement that he’ll now be allowed to go away, Martinelli expressed concern he is likely to be intercepted by the nation’s police.
“They have to be plotting in opposition to me by having Alpha Items of the Nationwide Police exterior the Nicaraguan Embassy,” he wrote on the social media platform X on Thursday.
Martinelli has till midnight on March 31 to go away.
