Panama - A 52-year-old man was charged with the crime against individual liberty, in the form of minor abduction, after being linked to the disappearance of a 7-year-old girl that occurred on April 8 in Villa de los Santos. The decision was made by a guarantees judge during the multiple requests hearing, after the Municipal Prosecutor's Office of Villa de los Santos managed to have the suspect's apprehension declared legal. The Prosecutor's Office presented the incriminating elements of the fact and substantiated the procedural risks that point to the accused as being responsible for the event. On the afternoon of April 8, the minor, identified by the initials J.M.H.C., disappeared in the Rueda area, in Villa de los Santos. Her absence sparked a race against time on the part of her family, neighbors, and authorities to find her. It was thanks to key information from a taxi driver that they managed to find the girl in a house located in the Roced neighborhood, in Chitré, several kilometers away. The judge accepted the formulation of the charge and applied the most severe precautionary measure against the accused.
