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Assembly casts doubts on PRD intentions about judicial corruption

by Eric Jackson, from other media

On March 30 a three-member subcommittee of the National Assembly's Credentials Committee threw out three complaints about corruption, leaving several more still pending before the legislature.

Deputies Argentina Arias, Agustín Escudé and Héctor Aparicio dismissed two separate complaints, one filed by University of Panama law students and another by attorney Florencio Barba Hart, related to decisions by magistrates Arturo Hoyos, Winston Spadafora and Aníbal Salas to free various drug suspects and in one case return property seized from a drug trafficker. Magistrate Adán Arnulfo Arjona had denounced these incidents and that judge's statements about his colleagues formed the basis for these two complaints.

Panamanian court decisions have held that in drug cases the burden of proof is reversed so that the accused must prove their innocence, and there is no bail in such cases. However, for bribes of $20,000 and up these draconian rules have been known to be waived. The last time such a matter got before the legislature --- complete with wiretaps of Judge Faúndes negotiating the bribe, which were played on national television --- the legislature acquitted the magistrate with a majority but less than the required two-thirds voting to convict.

The third complaint thrown out by the subcommittee was filed by anti-corruption activist Enrique Montenegro, whose petition was based on complaints by Hoyos, Spadafora and Salas about how Arjona had four employees of the Public Ministry double dipping as employees on his staff and that this entailed various conflicts of interest.

The four individuals' double employment was duly shown by public records.

The three legislators decided that the Assembly can't investigate any wrongdoing unless complete and convincing proof that obviates any need for an investigation is presented to it, and thus threw out the students' and Barba Hart's complaints.

Montenegro's complaint was dismissed because the three deputies held that the legislature can't do anything about unethical situations in the legal system unless they constitute criminal acts and that as far as they're concerned conflicts of interest are acceptable in our legal system.

Solidarity deputy Mireya Lasso told La Prensa that "this once again puts the Assembly in a questionable position before civil society." But PRD caucus leader Freidi Torres blasted "sensationalism" on the part of the media and alleged an attempt by people with special interests to attack the nation's institutions.

Eleven other complaints, which involve all but one of the current magistrates and some former ones, are still in the Credentials Commission's in box. However, the first three dismissals are an indication that the same tacit "you don't investigate me and I won't investigate you" agreement among the political class is in force and the decisions were criticized by business and civic leaders who pointed to them as a sign that this country lacks the rule of law.

The legislature's action comes on the heels of a controversy about President Torrijos's State Commission for Justice, a body with representatives of the institutions now beset by scandals that has been given the task of coming up with a study on possible judicial reforms in six months' time. A number of important institutions, most notably the Catholic Church and the Colegio de Abogados, have reluctantly agreed to cooperate with the commission so long as it doesn't engage in the more banal political games that might be expected. However, the actions of the PRD-controlled legislature now cast a certain amount of doubt on the intentions of the PRD-led administration.

Also in this section:
Legislature quashes action on court scandals
The perks of being Rector Magnífico
McMurrain trial postponed as his gang steals a new name
Panama News Briefs