Extradite ex-Panama leader, UA grad, judge rules
MIAMI — A former president of Panama should be extradited from the U.S. to face political espionage and embezzlement charges in his home country, a Miami federal judge ruled Thursday.
Ricardo Martinelli, 65, was Panama’s president from 2009-2014. He earned a business degree from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville in 1973 and an honorary degree from UA in 2013.
The 93-page ruling by U.S. Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres now goes to the State Department, which will ultimately decide whether Martinelli must return to Panama. The department has argued in court papers that it supports Martinelli’s extradition.
“After careful review of the evidence in the record, we are duty bound to find that the extradition request submitted by Panama satisfies all of the statutory requirements,” Torres wrote. “There is sufficient evidence to establish probable cause for all of the charges brought against … Martinelli.”
Martinelli is accused of illegally monitoring phone calls and other communications of at least 150 people using an extensive surveillance system. Martinelli is also accused of embezzlement of $13 million in public funds linked to the system, which operated from 2012-2014.
The former president’s lawyers contended that an update to Panama’s extradition treaty with the U.S. did not apply to him and that
scant evidence supports the charges. They call his indictment a political vendetta mounted by his opponents.
Martinelli has been held without bail since his arrest in June at his Miami-area home on Panama’s extradition request. He has been seeking political asylum in the U.S.
Allegations against him had been made public before his arrest, and Panama in September 2016 submitted a request to U.S. authorities for his extradition, according to a filing with U.S. securities regulators.
In a May email to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Martinelli said the “allegations are politically motivated and none have any facts, nor evidence nor proof, after 3 years of investigations, false witness, etc.”
Martinelli earned a fortune in the supermarket business. He was recognized by UA’s alumni association as a distinguished alumnus in 2002.
After being elected to the presidency — the first UA graduate to become a head of state — his ties to the university increased, including a highly publicized visit to campus in 2010.
Gift-agreement documents released by UA in June under the state’s public-disclosure law show Martinelli provided gifts totaling $200,000, not including a scholarship established in his name. None of the agreements was dated more recently than 2014.
After his arrest in June, Amy Schlesing, UA’s director of strategic communications, said in an email that Martinelli “hasn’t been engaged with the
university in several years.”
The university enrolled 146 students from Panama in fall 2016, the second-highest total for any foreign country. Martinelli was invited by students to attend a campus event in April but did not appear.
He continues to be listed with two volunteer university efforts. Martinelli is among 149 volunteers serving as “campaign volunteer leadership” for the school’s Campaign Arkansas, a $1 billion fundraising effort.
In 2013, Martinelli joined the Sam M. Walton College of Business Dean’s Executive Advisory Board.
UA spokesman Mark Rushing after the judge’s decision Thursday confirmed that Martinelli’s status as a volunteer remains unchanged.
Martinelli’s attorneys claimed that the extradition request runs counter to terms of an updated extradition treaty between the two countries, addressing cybercrimes, that took effect in July 2014, after the alleged offenses were committed. They claim Panama’s original 1905 extradition treaty with the U.S. contains a clause saying it did not apply retroactively — and say the clause remains in effect today.
U.S. prosecutors insisted that the position of both the government of Panama and the U.S. State Department is that Martinelli can properly be extradited on both the illegal-surveillance and the embezzlement charges. The original retroactivity provision, they said, does not apply to Martinelli’s case.
Torres sided with the prosecutors, finding that the updated treaty does cover the cybercrime allegations and that enough proof exists of embezzlement to let the Panama prosecution go forward.
“We find only that there are reasonable grounds to suppose him guilty of all or some of the offenses charged,” Torres wrote.
There is no direct appeal in U.S. courts on the decision. The Miami Herald reported Thursday that Martinelli’s attorneys plan to file a habeus corpus petition with a federal judge.
There is no immediate timetable on when Martinelli would return to Panama, assuming the State Department agrees with extradition.
In a May email to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Martinelli said the “allegations are politically motivated and none have any facts, nor evidence nor proof, after 3 years of investigations, false witness, etc.”