Panama’s electoral tribunal has disqualified former president Ricardo Martinelli from running in May’s presidential election, in light of his 10-year sentence for money laundering.
The body, which oversees the country’s electoral process, reached the decision after 10 hours of deliberations on Monday night. In a statement, it said that his disqualification was the result of his being sentenced to more than five years in prison for an intentional crime.
Panama’s Supreme Court last month rejected Mr. Martinelli’s appeal of a money-laundering conviction in a case in which prosecutors said funds were obtained from government contractors for the 2010 purchase of a publishing house.
Days after the court ruling, Mr. Martinelli, 71, a conservative businessman who led Panama from 2009 to 2014, was granted asylum by Nicaragua and fled to its embassy in the capital, Panama City.
Panama’s foreign ministry rejected Nicaragua’s request to allow Mr. Martinelli to leave the country, citing an international treaty on political asylum that says countries cannot grant asylum to people who are apolitical. A “true trial” has been made for the crime.
Mr. Martinelli has said he is innocent and a victim of political persecution, accusing the current president and vice president of trying to kill him to prevent him from taking office.
Mr Martinelli’s spokesman, Luis Eduardo Camacho, called the tribunal’s decision “illegal” on Tuesday and accused the body of procedural violations. “The rule of law does not exist in Panama, and we are in the midst of a civilian dictatorship,” he told The New York Times.
The electoral tribunal is allowing Mr. Martinelli’s running mate, former public security minister Jose Raul Malino, to run for president in his place.
“Martinelli is Molino and Molino is Martinelli,” Mr. Camacho said simply.
Erasmo Pinilla, a former member of the electoral tribunal, said that Mr. Martinelli’s team could ask the tribunal to reconsider its decision. But he said there was no basis for a backlash because Panama’s constitution prohibits anyone who has been sentenced to 5 years or more to be president.
“Like any decision, it can be reconsidered by the people who make it, but in that case they can’t change anything,” he said. “There is a constitutional mandate, a statutory mandate, and a decision by the court.”
This decision leaves some other presidential candidates. One of them, Ricardo Lombana, a former diplomat, wrote on the social media platform X, “This is the beginning, now let all the others fall who are stealing money from people.”
Polls had shown Mr. Martinelli as a leading candidate in the election. His supporters noted that he presided over Panama during a period of strong economic growth, including the multibillion-dollar expansion of the Panama Canal.
He faced previous criminal investigations. In 2021, he was acquitted of wiretapping opponents and journalists. He was also implicated in a pending legal case related to a multinational bribery scandal involving Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.
As the political drama unfolds, Mr. Martinelli appears to be making himself at home in the Nicaraguan embassy. A video on his X account shows him exercising on a treadmill. In a photo posted Tuesday morning, he is smiling on a hammock with Bruno, his dog, cradled in his arms.
Referring to the election tribunal’s decision, he wrote: “I woke up happy.” People who think that this is a proverb of a book, they should know that this is the preface of the same book.