UA grad, ex-Panama leader extradited.
Former Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli was extradited Monday back to his home country to face criminal charges.
Martinelli, 66, is a University of Arkansas, Fayetteville graduate arrested June 2017 by U.S. authorities at his Florida home. He had been jailed in Miami pending his legal fight against extradition on accusations of political espionage and embezzlement tied to his 2009-14 term as Panama’s president, according to court documents.
A U.S. State Department statement released Monday said it will be “for Panamanian courts to determine Mr. Martinelli’s guilt or innocence.”
Martinelli, who became wealthy as a supermarket magnate, earned a UA business degree in 1973 and is the university’s first graduate to become a head of state. He returned to Fayetteville in 2013 to receive an honorary doctorate.
Martinelli remains listed among volunteer leaders of the university’s Campaign Arkansas fundraising drive set to end in 2020, but a UA spokesman has said that Martinelli “hasn’t been actively involved” for several years.
Gifts from Martinelli to UA totaled $200,000, not including a scholarship established in his name, based on gift agreements released by the university last year under the state’s public disclosure law.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres in August granted an order certifying Martinelli’s extradition, but Martinelli continued a legal battle opposing extradition. They had also called his indictment in Panama a political vendetta. Last month, Martinelli’s spokesman said the legal effort would cease.
Less than two weeks before his 2017 arrest, Martinelli told the Democrat-Gazette in an email that allegations against him “are politically motivated.” Before his arrest, he stated he “will run for mayor” of Panama City and “probably also” for vice president.
Advocacy group Transparency International and its Panamanian chapter issued a statement Monday urging Panamanian authorities to keep Martinelli in detention pending a fair judicial process.
“Prosecutors and the Supreme Court should be vigilant that all avenues towards impunity — be that fleeing the country or even running for political office again to obtain immunity — are not open to Martinelli,” Olga de Obaldía, executive director of Transparency International Panama, said in a statement.