Panama's tangled web of wiretaps

(newsroompanama.com) Panama's administration Prosecutor Óscar Ceville says  that former Security Director Jorge Ábrego is making "false and libelous" claims about wiretaps allegedly ordered by Ceville.

Ceville alleged on Wednesday that  it was  an attempt to weaken the government's case against suspended Attorney General, Ana Matilde Gómez.

Gómez is to go on trial next week for ordering a wiretap to monitor phone calls of a prosecutor who was allegedly demanding bribes from defendants for preferential treatment.

The Supreme Court later suspended the attorney general and ordered her to be charged for agreeing to the wire taps.

 Ábrego recently went public with allegations that Ceville had also ordered a number of wiretaps. He has said that he was ordered by Ceville to put the taps in place.

Ceville has claimed that Ábrego threatened to make his claims public unless Ceville resigned from office. Ceville did that last November, but recently filed a criminal complaint against Ábrego for extortion.


In response, Ábrego went public about his claims regarding the wiretaps.

The claims are being investigated by the Public Ministry.

Former President Martín Torrijos, who was in office when these wiretaps were allegedly ordered, said through a spokesman that he knew nothing about them, but did say that he was aware of Ceville's claims that he was being extorted. He said that he left the matter in the hands of the Public Ministry.

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Original Source: http://www.newsroompanama.com/panama/1523-panamas-tangled-web-of-wiretaps.html
Date Retrieved: August 6, 2010.