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Judi Lynn

(160,219 posts)
Sat Nov 21, 2020, 02:08 AM Nov 2020

Panama court orders new trial for ex-President Martinelli in spying case

Last edited Sat Nov 21, 2020, 07:21 AM - Edit history (1)

By Metro US
Posted on November 20, 2020



FILE PHOTO: Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli waves during an anti-drugs summit at the Santo Domingo Hotel in Antigua

PANAMA CITY (Reuters) – A Panamanian court has ordered a new trial of former President Ricardo Martinelli in a case alleging he unlawfully spied on politicians, union leaders and journalists during his 2009-2014 presidency, the country’s top prosecutor announced on Friday.

The appeals court threw out Martinelli’s 2019 not guilty verdict, but did not set a date for the new trial.

Prosecutor Ricaurte Gonzalez cited what he described as “an incorrect assessment of much of the evidence” presented at the previous trial.

A supermarket tycoon who sought a political comeback in 2019, the ex-president was accused of ordering the interception of telecommunications without judicial authorization for some 150 individuals.

Martinelli maintained his innocence and accused his successor and one-time ally Juan Carlos Varela of conspiring against him.

https://www.metro.us/panama-court-orders-new/

(Short article, no more at link.)

You may recall when he feared the law was coming after him, he ran to Italy and hid out for a time with his dear friend, Silvio Berlusconi, who else?





Martinelli, with Trump, who owned a hotel in Panama



Berlusconi, lucky host to fellow grifter Martinelli and son







Martinelli, sharing a mild "stink eye."



Moment of self-mockery, gesturing he will win.



G'bye!

~ ~ ~

A tender Panama-Trump story from a few years ago:



CROWNING MOMENT: Donald Trump crowned
Justine Pasek of Panama Miss Universe in
September, 2002. Pasek later acted as a
spokesperson for the Homes Real Estate
Investment & Services company in Panama.
REUTERS/Chip East


Ivanka and the fugitive from Panama

Exclusive: How an alleged fraudster in Panama, working with Donald Trump's daughter, helped make Trump's first international hotel venture a success. The broker was in business with a money-launderer and two criminals from the former Soviet Union. Then he fled.

By NED PARKER, STEPHEN GREY, STEFANIE ESCHENBACHER, ROMAN ANIN, BRAD BROOKS and CHRISTINE MURRAY Filed Nov. 17, 2017, noon GMT



PANAMA CITY/TORONTO - In the spring of 2007, a succession of foreigners, many from Russia, arrived at Panama City airport to be greeted by a chauffeur who whisked them off in a white Cadillac with a Donald Trump logo on the side.

The limousine belonged to a business run by a Brazilian former car salesman named Alexandre Ventura Nogueira, who was offering the visitors a chance to invest in Trump’s latest project – a 70-floor tower called the Trump Ocean Club International Hotel and Tower. It was the future U.S. president’s first international hotel venture, a complex including residential apartments and a casino in a waterfront building shaped like a sail.

“Mr Nogueira was an outgoing and lively young man,” remembered Justine Pasek, who was crowned Miss Universe by Donald Trump in 2002 and was acting in 2007 as a spokesperson for Nogueira’s company, Homes Real Estate Investment & Services. “Everybody was so impressed with Homes as they seemed to be riding the top of the real estate boom at the time,” she said.

One of those Nogueira set out to impress was Ivanka, Trump’s daughter. In an interview with Reuters, Nogueira said he met and spoke with Ivanka “many times” when she was handling the Trump Organization’s involvement in the Panama development. “She would remember me,” he said.

More:
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-trump-panama/

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