Bonissi Gives More Importance to Extortion Than To Wiretaps

(Panama-Guide) Panama's Attorney General, Giuseppe Bonissi, gave more importance to the extortion complaint filed by the Prosecutor of Administration, Oscar Ceville, than to the allegations of wiretaps and recordings of telephone conversations of government employees in this institution without a proper court order. Bonissi based his position on the fact that the Criminal Code allows for sentences of up to 10 years for the crime of extortion, while illegal wiretaps can be punished with 2 to 4 years in prison. Because of this, Bonissi said that at this moment the Public Ministry will be at the forefront of this investigation, which will be compiled into one single file, depending on the circumstances.

"In that way the corresponding decisions can be taken, because as a part of the overall global situation several crimes might have been committed," he said. He explained that the complaint filed by the Prosecutor Ceville against his former security chief, Jorge Abrego, for the alleged commission of attempted extortion for now will be included in the same investigation.

The former Attorney General Rogelio Cruz, spoke out about the statements made by Bonissi and stressed that the investigations into this scandal can not be mixed in the same file - that is to say - there can be no "accumulation" of processes, cases, or investigations. "This deals with the alleged commission of two different offenses. Although they are related, they must be investigated separately," said Cruz. In fact, the Judicial Code provides in Article 2288 that: "There is room for the accumulation of processes, when faced with the same offense, followed by two or more different and distinct actions. One single summary case file cannot be opened for crimes committed by different people, at different times, and without a prior agreement between them to commit a crime ...".

Investigation: The Attorney General said that from the first day the Panama America released the news about the wiretaps and the recording of the telephone conversations of government employees who work in the offices of the Prosecutor of Administration, they began their investigations. At this moment the investigation is at the initial stage of summary verification. Ceville would be investigated. Bonissi explained that if they uncover an illegal activity in their investigations, then by law it would correspond to him to open a case against Ceville, while at the same time he said that in the future it could happen that he might separate the case and move part of it to a Circuit Prosecutor to address the complaint about extortion. "I first have to assemble the file and then, if I see new elements or if I have to split the case, I will do it," he said. "We must be clear that this type of investigation can take many years, as happened with the case of Ana Matilde Gomez which has been open since 2007," he said. He warned he could not make any comment on an investigation that is just beginning, however, he explained the only similarity he has seen thus far to the case pending against former Attorney General Ana Matilde Gomez is that this is a case which was presented as a criminal complaint.

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Original Source: http://www.panama-guide.com/article.php/20100805112209181
Date Retrieved: August 6, 2010.