Comptroller says De Lima has no connection with the purchase of grains

Kristelle Getzler, wife of former Minister of Economy and Finance, Frank de Lima, said she does not understand why if two reports exculpate his husband on split shopping, he is still detained for nine months.

Getzler, told RPC Radio, that in a report in December 2015, the Office of the Comptroller General of Colombia said that there was no division of grain purchases in the National Assistance Program (PAN).

The argument shopping fractionation was used by the first anti-corruption prosecutor Tania Sterling to arrest the former Minister of State in May last year after serving 10 hours of questioning, said the wife of a member of the Democratic Change (CD).

He said one of the documents of the Comptroller established that De Lima is not related to the purchase of grains, and it was not a purchase of the MEF, but the PAN, now called Welfare Administration (DAS).

She added that money transfer is not divided shops, so she does not understand why her husband has been detained since May 2015; while, he said that requested a meeting with the head of tax, Kenya Porcell de Alvarado, to explain why De Lima is in jail.

Getzler said that if her husband did something wrong is an administrative matter, not criminal.

She said that the Sterling prosecutor must answer a request for change of preventive detention for another, however, to date it has not.

Getzler said spokesmen own current government explain that to the PAN was not governed by the law of public procurement, which encourages your partner, and two reports from the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) to exculpate her husband, but he still detained at the headquarters of the National Police (PN) of Ancon.

Getzler, along with other relatives of political prisoners of the administration of Juan Carlos Varela , began a campaign to secure the release of their relatives.

The campaign includes Masses, meetings, protests and posts on the different social networks.

The First Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office investigated the alleged purchase of grain by the PAN in the previous administration and some of the defendants have precautionary measures.

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Datos

• El ministro de Economía y Finanzas, Dulcidio de la Guardia, en una carta enviada a la Fiscalía Primera Anticorrupción, señaló que Frank de Lima no intervino en las compras del PAN en el 2012.

• La nota fue remita el 24 de junio del año pasado a la fiscal Tania Sterling, que investiga la compra de comida deshidratada. A pesar de ello, la funcionaria de instrucción no cambió la detención preventiva en contra del extitular del MEF. El documento también eximió a Gladys Cedeño, exviceminstra de Economía, aunque estuvo detenida en el centro femenino de rehabilitación, Sterling le cambió la prisión preventiva por casa por cárcel. Voces disidentes del gobierno varelista se muestran disconformes con la actuación de algunos funcionarios de instrucción, a quienes acusan de hacer justicia selectiva con los funcionarios de la administración anterior con duras medidas cautelares, pero a los panameñistas los tratan suave.