Former Panamanian president Ricardo Martinelli should be extradited to his homeland to face charges he illegally orchestrated a campaign funded by public money to spy on political rivals there, a US federal judge in Miami said on Thursday.
US Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres said Panama had established probable cause for all charges it brought against Martinelli and that a show of “good faith” to its government required his surrender.
“There are reasonable grounds to suppose him guilty of all or some of the offenses charged,” Torres wrote in a 93-page decision.
Photo: AP
The US Department of State is to decide whether to extradite Martinelli, but in an Aug. 1 court filing said it supported extradition.
It is not clear when a decision might be made.
Martinelli, 65, has denied the charges and plans to appeal the extradition order, his lawyer Marcos Jimenez said in an e-mail.
He is also seeking political asylum.
Officials with the Panamanian government did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Martinelli was Panama’s president from 2009 to 2014.
Prosecutors accused him of diverting more than US$13.4 million of public funds, intended to help underprivileged people, to fund a surveillance system to listen in on more than 150 rivals.
Martinelli, a wealthy businessman through his ownership of supermarkets, was arrested in June by US authorities in Coral Gables, Florida, and later held without bail.
He had previously left Panama as that country was preparing to charge him.
Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela had once been Martinelli’s vice president, but they later became rivals.
Martinelli’s lawyers have called their client’s prosecution politically motivated.
They had sparred with US prosecutors over whether an extradition treaty updated in July 2014 between the US and Panama covered Martinelli’s alleged cybercrimes, which predated the update.
Torres said it did, and that Martinelli’s having “at best” suggested the issue was ambiguous was “not enough to conclude that his interpretation ultimately prevails and bars his extradition.”
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia