Arrests, confusion in the Justiniani murder case

Aftermath of prison reformer Javier Justiniani's murder

Apparent gunman arrested, but confusion ensues
by Eric Jackson, from other media

Back in 1999, Javier Justiniani and Braulio Enrique Saintein lived in the same prison cell, and later as a lawyer Justiniani unsuccessfully defended Santein's father, who has a similar name. Allegedly caught on a video surveillance camera and identified by the secretary who witnessed Justiniani's April 29 slaying, Santein was arrested the day after the murder while at his job as a baggage handler at Tocumen Airport.

Before Santein was identified and apprehended, the Martinelli administration in general and Government & Justice Minister José Raúl Mulino had been taking the position that Justiniani's death was the product of his criminal past. It was a continuation of the vilification of Justiniani during his lifetime as at the very least an accomplice of criminals by reason of the ex-convict and attorney's campaign for less hellish prison conditions.

In Panama there are hardly any restrictions on pretrial publicity stunts by police and prosecutors, and thus the government, mainly through prosecutor Neftalí Jaén, has been continually announcing details of the investigation, the supposed results of Saintein's interrogation and claims of breakthroughs in the case.

At first, prosecutors reported, Santein said that he shot Justiniani because he believed that the lawyer had done a poor job of representing his father, whom he thought should have beaten the charge against him. But that would be something that happens from time to time to criminal defense lawyers everywhere in the world --- the lawyer who doesn't win the case is presumed to have lost due to malpractice and revenge is taken or attempted. The prosecutors said that they didn't believe the initial story.

Then it was announced that Santein changed his story, then claiming that some Colombians had pressured him to kill Justiniani, whom he considered a friend, and threatened to have his father killed in prison if he did not carry out the hit.

That second version was said to fit in with the secretary's version, and that of a woman across the street and of the surveillance camera, that placed a short, heavy set woman with light skin and dark hair at the scene of the crime as it was unfolding. After the shooting, it was said, she walked away while Santein got into a taxi and was driven off. Prosecutors claimed that they had identified the cab's number by way of the police surveillance camera.

On May 3 the police arrested taxi driver José Luis "Peluquín" González. But González, who said that he's giving his full cooperation to investigators, claims that he was neither driving the cab nor in Juan Diaz at the time of the crime, and that he never transported Santein. It seems that this may have been a taxi whose operation was shared, but in any case prosecutors do not appear to believe his story.

There ensued a series of at least three arrests of Colombian women, none of whom very closely matched the description or used the name provided for the suspect seen around the crime scene. In at least one of these cases, the woman who was arrested was handed over to Migracion for allegedly having overstayed a visa.

The embarrassed prosecutors then announced that the pursuit of the alleged Colombian woman had been handed over to immigration authorities, and a dragnet was put out to harass Colombian prostitutes in particular and Colombian women in general.

The question has been raised whether the Colombian woman angle is a political invention designed to smear Justiniani as a gangland figure until the day that he died and thus vindicate the claims put forward by the Martinelli administration.

Meanwhile Justiniani's family has become a party to the case, by way of a lawyer working as private prosecutor. The late activist's mother said that she has forgiven her son's killer or killers, but wants to know the truth and wants to see that the prison reform work that her son did continues.

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