Tribunal disqualifies Martinelli’s candidacy over 10-year jail sentence for cash laundering final 12 months.
Panama’s Electoral Tribunal has annulled the candidacy of former President Ricardo Martinelli within the presidential election set for Could.
The choice, introduced late on Monday by the physique’s president Alfredo Junca, seems to finish Martinelli’s hopes of re-election. It comes a month after the previous chief misplaced a bid to keep away from a jail sentence for corruption and took asylum within the Nicaraguan embassy.
Martinelli served as president from 2009 to 2014. Final 12 months he was discovered responsible of utilizing stolen public cash to purchase a stake in a publishing home. The 71-year-old grocery store tycoon was sentenced to greater than 10 years in jail and given a $19m effective.
Final month, the Supreme Court docket rejected an enchantment in opposition to his sentence. Martinelli blasted that ruling as an “illegal last-minute move” to take away him from the presidential race.
The finalisation of his conviction allowed the Electoral Tribunal to annul his candidacy. Panama’s structure bars anybody sentenced to 5 years or extra for a criminal offense from holding elected workplace.
Earlier than the annulment, most polls had positioned Martinelli because the favorite to win Could’s election. His working mate, former Overseas Minister Jose Raul Mulino, was authorised by the tribunal to proceed alone on the poll as a presidential candidate.
Martinelli, who was additionally disqualified from working for a legislative seat, has denied wrongdoing and maintains he’s the sufferer of political persecution.
A millionaire businessman when he grew to become president, Martinelli has been investigated for a number of corruption scandals since leaving workplace.
In 2021, he was acquitted on expenses of espionage and embezzlement of public funds.
He faces a separate trial, scheduled for after the Could 5 elections, over alleged bribery funds throughout his presidency from Brazilian building large Odebrecht for public works initiatives in Panama.
A populist who oversaw a interval of massive infrastructure initiatives, together with the development of the capital’s first subway line, Martinelli is the primary former president convicted of a criminal offense in Panama.
Final 12 months, the US authorities barred Martinelli and his instant household from coming into that nation, primarily based on what it known as his involvement in “significant” corruption.