MIAMI (AP) – The United States cannot legally return a former Panamanian president to face political espionage charges in Panama, his lawyers argued Thursday, pointing in federal court to what they call flimsy evidence and flaws in an extradition treaty.
The attorneys for Ricardo Martinelli said key parts of a bilateral extradition treaty went into effect in July 2014, after the alleged criminal conduct happened, and cannot be applied retroactively. They also said evidence of related embezzlement charges is too weak to justify sending him home.
“That is pure fiction,” said Marcos Jimenez, a former U.S. attorney in Miami who represents Martinelli. “They don’t have the proof of embezzlement. It is just not there.”
U.S. Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres did not immediately rule, instead setting another hearing for Aug. 22.
Martinelli is accused in Panama of illegally monitoring phone conversations and other communications of at least 150 people with an extensive surveillance system he obtained from an Israeli company using public funds. His alleged targets included business and political rivals, union activists, journalists, even his mistress. The embezzlement charges involve more than $13 million in public funds used to set up the illegal system.