The list of complaints against the lenient judicial treatment of officials from the current administration is long and getting longer: drawn-out investigations without charges being formulated in spite of the existence of strong proof; prosecutors turning a blind eye in favor of those investigated and, last but not least, laughable sentences being passed.
This is in sharp contrast with the treatment that applies to officials from the previous government. The latter have received severe detention measures in spite of the lack of any legal rationale that would justify them. Many have been the subject of preventive detentions for months, and in some cases in excess of one year. Some former government officials remain in detention to this day without having received a fair trial.
Silvio Guerra, a local lawyer specializing in criminal law, for one believes there is a clear difference in the handling of judicial investigations concerning current government officials as compared to those that served in the previous administration. 'There appears to be a blanket of impunity for current government officials', he declared.
Mr. Guerra highlighted how judicial investigations relating to people close to the current government end to follow two patterns: some see no subpoenas been issued in the first place; others fail to be followed up until they “fizzle out”.
“By contrast, officials from the previous administration who are accused of wrongdoing go straight to jail”, he pointed out.
According to Mr. Guerra, the application of such harsh sentences in cases where proof has been essentially made up constitutes proof itself of a highly selective justice system.
Former assembly member from the pro-government Popular Party Teresita Yaniz de Arias also believes that in Panama a two-tier justice system applies: a loose one for some people, and a tight one for others.
Appearing last Sunday on the Radar TV programme aired by national channel TVN, Ms. Yaniz de Arias cited the example of Gustavo Perez, who is being detained for 6 years for possession of two old firearms, have while others who are supposed to be currently in detention "turn up at Sunday mass'.
In spite of protestations on the part of government officials that the judicial system is independent of the executive, this is not what ordinary Panamanians perceive. According to the former assembly member, this is one of the reasons for the very low ratings that President Juan Carlos Varela has scored in recent polls.
Mr. Perez, who was formerly the director of the National Police and executive secretary of the Security Council, remains in custody to this day. His sentence, passed by the 12th district court in December of last year, was later confirmed by the second upper tribunal.
He was arrested and condemned for possession of two old and unusable firearms that were gifted to him as collectibles in recognition of the offices he had occupied within the security apparatus. His defense has appealed the sentence in the Supreme Court: his future now rests on the Court’s final ruling.
Thirteen days after Mr. Perez' sentencing, on December 15, 2015, the 16th penal court was issuing a different ruling, this time concerning somebody who used to be spokesperson of the electoral campaign team of President Juan Carlos Varela: Mr. Grimaldo Cordoba.
Mr. Cordoba was shown to have falsely declared to be in possession of medical qualifications and to have practiced as a medical doctor without been qualified to do so. In spite of the gravity of the accusation, Mr. Cordoba received a minimum sentence of three years and a half, which was commuted to a simple monetary fine in exchange for his freedom.
In other words, Grimaldo Cordoba didn't go to jail at all, in spite of the fact that the Panamania penal code establishes a maximum sentence of five years detention for the kind of crimes he was found guilty of.
Similarly, in January this year, the public ministry received complaints of supposed irregularities in public tenders issued by the “Roofs of Hope” social housing program.
In spite of the existence of a report by the National Authority for Transparency and Access to Information (Antai) showing the existence of irregularities in the contracts issued by Miviot and by its minister in charge, Mario Etchelecu, as well as by the director of the former Program for National Support (PAN), Rafael Stanziola, Atty. General Kenia Porcell still has not pronounces a single word on the case.
For much less than that, anti-corruption prosecutors have ordered the detention of former ministers Frank De Lima and Jose Raul Mulino. Both were detained for seven and nine months, respectively.
Victor Osorio has now been in detention for 14 months.
For his part, litigation lawyer Carlos Carrillo also points to of the public's perception that the independence of the judiciary is very much questionable.
According to Mr. Carrillo, although in principle all citizens are equal in the eyes of the law, ordinary Panamanians see of that the opposite is true, which represents a “dangerous corruption of the judicial system”.
