Former president Ricardo Martinelli was sentenced to more than ten years in prison and fined over 19 million dollars for money laundering.
HAVANA TIMES – The dictatorship of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua granted asylum on February 7th to the former president of Panama (2009-2014) and current presidential candidate Ricardo Martinelli, who was sentenced to more than ten years in prison and fined over 19 million dollars for money laundering. It was the first sentence of its kind in the democratic history of the Central American country.
“In accordance with the 1928 Asylum Convention and the 1933 Political Asylum Convention, ratified by our country, and recognizing that asylum is a humanitarian institution and that all persons may be under its protection, regardless of nationality,” Nicaragua decided to “grant asylum to Mr. Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Berrocal, former president of the Republic of Panama,” the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
According to the Ortega regime, Ricardo Martinelli, 71, sought asylum at the Nicaraguan Embassy in Panama, “considering himself persecuted for political reasons and being in imminent danger to his life, physical integrity, and security.”
“He is in the embassy,” Martinelli’s spokesperson Luis Eduardo Camacho told journalists outside the Nicaraguan diplomatic headquarters.
“If anyone had any doubts that Ricardo Martinelli was political persecuted, they no longer have reason to doubt, and now what needs to be seen is whether the Government of (Laurentino) Cortizo grants the safe conduct for his departure (…) or if his desire to kill Ricardo Martinelli is more important,” said Camacho.
According to the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry statement, the Ortega regime requested the Panamanian government to “provide assurances for the prompt departure and humanitarian transfer of Martinelli” to Nicaragua.
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Ricardo Martinelli joins