Ortega grants political asylum to Panama’s former president Ricardo Martinelli, accused of corruption

The regime of Daniel Ortega, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reported this Wednesday that it granted political asylum to the former President of Panama, Ricardo Martinelli Berrocal, who was sentenced to ten years and eight months in prison for money laundering in his country Went.

Through the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry, the dictatorship asked the Panamanian government led by Laurentino Cortizo to guarantee “security” for the prompt departure and transfer to Nicaragua of former President Martinelli.

“Former President Ricardo Martinelli requested asylum at the Embassy of the Republic of Nicaragua in Panama, as he considered himself persecuted for political reasons and that his life, physical integrity and security were in imminent danger,” the regime said in a statement released Wednesday. Was.”

Therefore, Ortega decided to grant him asylum and also asked the Panamanian government to allow him to transfer to Nicaragua.

Martinelli was sentenced last July to 128 months in prison and a $19 million fine for money laundering. On February 2, the Supreme Court rejected a last resort measure to overturn the former president’s conviction, meaning the decision is not appealable.

presidential candidate

Despite the court’s decision, Mattinelli He launched his campaign on Saturday 3 February For the presidential election on May 5.

“People of Panama, I am not defeated,” the 71-year-old right-wing former president, who ruled between 2009 and 2014, said in a speech in the capital’s Plaza Santa Ana, after assuring that he was “innocent” and promising. That he would fight until his “last breath”.

his crimes

Martinelli was tried in 2010, when he was president, for purchasing the majority shares of Editora Panamá America with money collected from commissions on infrastructure works.

According to the court, for this acquisition, part of the $43.9 million deposited by various companies in a complex scheme of bribe payments, amounting to 10% of the amount of the original public works contract, was used.

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In the case, known as “New Business” because of the name of one of the companies used in the conspiracy, the former president was tried from May 23 to June 2, 2023, and adjudicated in July.

In addition, the former president will face another trial in July for alleged laundering of bribes paid by Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.

The former president’s two sons, Ricardo and Luis Enrique Martinelli, served two and a half years in prison in the United States for collecting commissions from Odebrecht.