EXCERPT
Lawyer Marcos Jiménez, a former U.S. attorney in Miami, has raised a host of defenses attacking Martinelli’s detention and the extradition request, claiming that as a former Panamanian president he has immunity and there is no basis for the charges during his time in office.
He argued that the two main surveillance charges were not among the 13 criminal offenses listed in the original 1904 U.S.-Panama extradition treaty and that the two embezzlement counts were tacked on after Panamanian prosecutors realized their surveillance case was flawed.
“There’s a rush to judgment,” Jiménez argued. “There’s a rush to charge him with triple hearsay [witnesses]. There’s a rush to charge him with stealing $13 million in [government] equipment.”
