Judicial Scandal in Panama Over Odebrecht Case

Attorney Rolando Rodríguez shares the opinion that the admissibility of these evidence violates the due process and the right to defense of the implicated, but it seems that this does not matter to the authorities, as what the Panamanian people have witnessed is a series of inconsistencies and suspensions that seem to have no end. No person, not only the people I defend, but no person at all, can be prosecuted in the Odebrecht case, because everything stems from an illicit evidence decreed illegal, not only by the superior court, but also by the Supreme Court of Brazil, and we have already brought that evidence into the file, so it is not that the judge or the prosecution is unaware of it. The Odebrecht case trial has left more questions than answers in the country; the actions of the judicial system, on this particular issue, have been questionable from the beginning. On that day, Judge Baloisa Marquínez, in charge of the case, rescheduled the hearing for November 11 of the same year, pending the necessary international judicial assistance to carry out a contradictory process that would 'guarantee the effective right to defense,' but on the assigned date, it was suspended again until this Monday, January 12, 2026, because one of the accused could not be notified. The jurist Basilio González stated that if this evidence is used, it would be an illegality. The Judicial Branch informed that it will suspend the development of the Fisher case for a few days to allow Marquínez to attend the Odebrecht hearing, however, due to the relevance of the process, it is expected that there may be changes with the date. The first one occurred on August 1, 2023, when the Second Liquidator Court of Criminal Cases of the First Judicial Circuit of Panama decided not to hold the ordinary hearing because it was still in the 'admissibility of evidence' stage, setting an alternate date for September 27 of the same year, but it was postponed again for the same reason. Rescheduling that, in the opinion of attorney Carlos Carrillo, shows that Judge Marquínez handles a dual criterion in the judgment of this case based on the people involved. Recently, it became known that the judge is serving as a rapporteur in another litigation within the Accusatory Penal System (SPA), which could affect her participation in the normal development of the Odebrecht case trial. After the change, it was rescheduled for November 12, 2024, because the practice of testimonial and documentary evidence that had to be carried out abroad (Brazil, Spain, United States, and Mexico) required a 'prudent time' for the issuance of the respective international assistance, proposing an alternate date of January 20, 2025. The irregularity that most draws the attention of the lawyers involved in the case is the lack of evidence to support the fact, since the same was dismissed in Brazil; therefore, they should also be annulled at the local level, but this has not happened. On the one hand, they demand justice, and on the other, they stop responding to international requests from the country where the litigation began. They maintain that if the evidence was declared 'null' by the magistrates of the Superior Court of the South American country, they should not be valid in Panama, and this the Supreme Court of Justice knows perfectly well. Both know it,” he said.