government

Committee shelves complaints

The Assembly has pushed aside cases involving Martín Torrijos and Winston Spadafora.

Some members of the organization have called the decisions politically motivated.

The Credentials Committee of the National Assembly has shelved complaints filed against President Martín Torrijos and Supreme Court Judge Winston Spadafora. Credentials Committee Chairman Elias Castillo justified the actions by stating that not enough information was provided for it to make a decision on the matters.

Castillo said that the committee is not a “research institution.”

Florencio Barba Hart, who filed the complaint against Torrijos for Constitutional violations, called the decision “political.” Hart's complaint was filed in May after Torrijos appointed Jaime Ruiz as the acting director of the police department, despite the fact that he was a member of the force and not a civilian. The Constitution prohibited uniformed officers from directing the department.

Torrijos justified the decision by stating that Ruiz was only acting as director on a temporary basis. Torrijos later issued an executive order suspending the rule as part of his security reforms.

A complaint was also filed against Spadafora by the former secretary general of the Panama Maritime Authority, Carlos González De Lastra, accusing the judge of impeding the functions of the authority.

González De Lastra accused the magistrate of having trade links to the businessman Jean Figali, who is involved in a controversial development on the Amador causeway.

González De Lastra supported his claim with more than 1,000 pages in documents outlining how Spadafora had violated Article 212 of the Constitution, which prohibits judges from being involved in trade.