Panama Supreme Court: Leadership Change and Allegations of Misconduct

This week, lawyer Alejandro Pérez emphasized that the Supreme Court of Justice has undergone a major change, after María Eugenia López was not re-elected as its president. Pérez highlighted the questionable handling of the highest judicial body during the years it was under María Eugenia López's leadership. Pérez stressed that during María Eugenia López Arias's presidency, there was everything in the court except for justice. The lawyer hopes that the Supreme Court of Justice will become a true organ of justice, and that there will be no more "trickery and misconduct that occurred during the two years of María Eugenia López Arias's reign." "Obviously, the way María Eugenia López Arias managed the court, the way she handled cases, the way she 'remote-controlled' subordinates to achieve favorable outcomes for her interests and not for justice are questionable," the lawyer stated. If the tradition of handling cassation appeals in the court had been followed, Martinelli could have run. "María Eugenia was isolated because everyone knows that she definitely ran things her way and not necessarily by law or for the sake of justice," he specified. They made a political move using the New Business case", Pérez exposed. Pérez hopes that the new president magistrate, María Cristina Chen, will bring order, but above all, will sort out the administrative side, because that's where many contracts were signed that if "you dig, pus will come out, cleaning contracts or with insurance companies." Because they were interested in Martinelli not running in the May 24 elections. In this regard, he recalled the Ricardo Martinelli cassation case when the magistrates, instead of having 15 days each to opine on the action, simply reduced this term to 15 days for all magistrates. Why? "We're talking about three months being blown away."