(Panama-Guide) - El Siglo- Panama's Attorney General (in charge) Giuseppe Bonissi, was forced yesterday to announce that he and his prosecutors will submit to polygraph tests after receiving harsh criticism after it was learned that four alleged drug traffickers were released with the complicity of Public Ministry officials from the Superior Anti Drug Prosecutor's Office in the Azuero. The Chief of the Public Ministry (MP) said, from the headquarters of the National Bar Association, that all prosecutors are temporary in their positions as of this moment. The polygraph tests (which measure the change in blood pressure to detect if a person is lying) will be conducted by the National Police and will take as long as three hours for each person being tested. What's more, people who have been contracted by the institution must also pass polygraph tests.
The new rules in the Public Ministry seek to soothe the pressure from members of the "organized civil society" who are calling for Bonissi's removal. At a press conference Bonissi also said that every week he will meet with representatives of the civil society so that they can know about the work be done by the institution. But the new changes do not seem to convince the public. Rolando Carrizo, president of the Crusade for Peace, in a statement called for the resignation of the Attorney General to expedite the investigations in a more transparent manner. Carizzo's petition is joined by Magaly Castillo, the Executive Director of the Citizens Alliance for Justice, which demanded Bonissi's separation.
Lorentz Doesn't Have Faith In Calderon: While the Public Ministry is trying to change the course of things, Eva Lorentz, the former head of Human Resources, again expressed her doubts about the process when she pointed out that Auxiliary Prosecutor Angel Calderon, who has been appointed to head the investigation, continues to report directly to Bonissi.
Milagros Valdes Quiroz, the former Anti Drug Prosecutor for the Azuero region, confessed on 15 December 2010 of having released four men accused of drug trafficking based on orders from Lorentz, from the Secretary General of the Agency, Nedelka Dias, and from Alcibiades Ballesteros, the lawyer for the alleged drug traffickers.
The Origins Of The Case: On 22 August 2010 a small plane with tail number N-2538-B was found abandoned at a clandestine airstrip in Santa Ana, in the province of Los Santos, where Valdés Quiroz was the practicing Anti Drug Prosecutor. In this case Miguel A. Castillo Peralta, Miguel Castillo Domínguez, Abelino Ríos Valdés and George A. Guillen were arrested, and they were released on 25 November 2010 on the orders of the former prosecutor Valdés Quiroz.
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Date Retrieved: December 24, 2010.
