So far the exact time when the former president could be leaving the Nicaraguan embassy in this capital heading to Tocumen International Airport is unknown, but since early this morning National Police units began to arrive outside the diplomatic headquarters, where he remained as a refugee since February 7, 2024.
Last week the Government granted the safe-conduct whose non-extendable term ends at midnight of this Monday, March 31.
In 2023, Martinelli was sentenced to 10 years and eight months in prison for the crime of money laundering in the ‘New Business’ case, related to the purchase of a publishing company with State resources. Progress on Martinelli’s trip to Nicaragua had its obstacles when the day before the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry, through a letter addressed to its Isthmian counterpart, warned that as long as the status regarding the existence or not of an Interpol alert against the former president was not clarified, they could not receive him.
The reactions of the Nicaraguan diplomacy come after Jaime Fernandez, director of the National Police, confirmed this Sunday that there was an Interpol alert against Panama’s former president.
In the midst of the commotion, the security entity later issued a statement confirming that the request for a red alert against the former governor, which was initiated by Judge Baloisa Marquínez at the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), was rejected.
“We have rejected the processing of such notification because it does not conform to the parameters established by Interpol from 2014 and reaffirmed in 2017, which prohibits the issuance of red alerts on citizens in refugee or political asylum status”, specifies that official message.
Hours before this text was made public, the Foreign Ministry of Panama pointed out that no Interpol red alert can prevent the trip of the former president.
The safe-conduct in favor of former president Ricardo Martinelli has been granted in application of conventional norms of International Law, which prevail over the actions of the police authorities in this case’, the document states. ef/abo/mem/ga