Former Panamanian president Ricardo Martinelli, who has sought asylum in the Nicaraguan embassy, and about twenty others will be tried starting Monday in Panama for alleged money laundering of bribes from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht. The trial will be held in a Panama City court starting at 14:00 GMT, according to the Judicial Branch. Twenty-six defendants will face charges of alleged money laundering, which carries a maximum penalty of 12 years in prison in the country.
Among this group is Martinelli, who took refuge in the Nicaraguan embassy in February 2024 before an arrest warrant was issued for a sentence of nearly eleven years in prison he received in another money laundering case. Former president Juan Carlos Varela and two of Martinelli’s sons are also charged in the scandal but will be tried by the Supreme Court of Justice, on a date yet to be determined, as they have immunity as deputies of the Central American Parliament and Panama’s National Assembly.
In 2022, a Panamanian court ordered Martinelli, 72, and Varela, 61, to stand trial, but the process has been delayed by legal maneuvers and has been postponed at least three times. “There is hope that a case that has been extremely delayed will finally conclude,” said Carlos Barsallo, a member of the NGO Transparency International.
“At the same time, there is uncertainty about the impact on certain evidence from Brazil,” where a judge has annulled some evidence and agreements that could affect the case in Panama, Barsallo added.
Millionaire Bribes
According to the trial order, there are Odebrecht payment orders that, although not directly paid into Martinelli’s own accounts, he was allegedly the final recipient and had “full knowledge of the illicit origin” of the money. Varela acknowledged receiving funds from the Brazilian company as donations through third parties for his 2009 campaign but not bribes while governing.
However, the prosecution asserted that he also received payments “when he already held the position of president” and when he was Martinelli’s vice president, at times when Odebrecht was benefiting from the award of millionaire contracts. In 2016, Odebrecht pleaded guilty before a U.S. court to having distributed more than 788 million dollars in bribes to government officials, functionaries, and political parties, mainly in Latin America.
In Panama, the company admitted to paying 59 million dollars in commissions in exchange for the award of public works contracts, such as the Metro, the highway connecting the old quarter to the modern area of the capital, and terminal two of the airport. Martinelli’s two prosecuted sons, Ricardo and Luis Enrique, were convicted in the United States in 2022 after pleading guilty to receiving 28 million dollars in bribes from Odebrecht while their father was president. After serving two and a half years in prison, they were sent to Panama.
Both Martinelli and Varela are sanctioned by the U.S. government, with a ban on entering that country, which accuses them of corruption. The Odebrecht case hearing will be presided over by Judge Baloísa Marquínez, and according to the Judicial Branch, this ordinary hearing is expected to extend until February 28.
