The Guarantee Judge Elkis Martínez denied the request for the ‘punctures case’, but Martinelli´s defense attorney appealed such a decision, based on a technicality of the time elapsed since the opening of the case, where it contends the justice excluded Martinelli´s extradition period process from United States to Panama.

This ruling considered the request ‘inadmissible’ and this could force Martinelli to appear before court on June 22, when his trial is scheduled, for which a court previously declared him ‘not guilty’, a term for the first time heard on the Panamanian courtroom.

‘The important thing here is that Judge Martínez was too academic and in that sense she determined that the prescription requested by Martinelli´s defense was not valid,’ Prosecutor Aurelio Vásquez told the press, assuring that the Attorney General´s Office is ready for the hearing.

Martinelli´s attorneys and media utterly rejected the ruling, being discourteous to magistrates and previous situations of the Attorney General´s Office, among others.

mh/pll/msm / orm