Ernesto Perez Balladares Testifies in CEMIS Scandal Case

(Panama-Guide) - La Prensa -  Former President Ernesto Perez Balladares gave his sworn testimony yesterday before the Public Ministry in the continuing investigations into scandal of the alleged payment of bribes to lawmakers to get their votes to approve the Multimodal Industrial and Service Center (CEMIS) in 2002. Perez Balladares was accompanied by his lawyer Luis Carlos Cabezas, and he gave his statement to the General Secretary of the Public Ministry, Nedelka Diaz, said sources from the institution.

Perez Balladares told investigators that all he knows about the alleged negotiations that were made leading up to the approval of this bill, which was voted on in the National Assembly in 2002, is contained in the video tapes he gave to then Attorney General Ana Matilde Gomez in July 2009, stressed the source. Perez Balladares was notified of the summons to appear by the Undersecretary of Public Prosecutions, Beatriz Castanet, who went to his resident in San Francisco earlier this week. The former president's statement filled 20 pages, they said.

In some of these videos, which have already been made public, and which have a very poor audio quality, Perez Balladares is seen sitting in an armchair talking to lawmaker Carlos Afu, along with a third man who can not be identified. According to these recordings, Afu is informing the former president on the execution of "secret" negotiations to secure the approval of the controversial CEMIS project.

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Original Source: http://www.panama-guide.com/article.php/20100807081020230
Date Retrieved: August 7, 2010.