“SIGNIFICANT developments” in the case of  Valter Lavítola,  indicted for alleged extortion  of Italian company Impregilo, at the request of former president Ricardo Martinelli, have led to his defense lawyer asking for  a judicial appointment for his client to be questioned again.

Asked about a change in strategy, based on the unpublished Lavítola collaboration with Italian justice, Attorney Marianna Febbrario gave no details but said they were significant, reports La Prensa

Lavítola, the main intermediary between Italy and Panama and has more than two years without freedom and facing judicial hearings and has physically deteriorated.  Property  worth more than $4 million has been confiscated by the court.

The deputy prosecutor of the Court of Naples, Vincenzo Piscitelli, accused Martinelli's old friend of  the international crime of corruption in Panama, based on the suspicion that the cost of financing the construction of the pediatric hospital of Veraguas was actually a bribe fora senior Panamanian former executive.

As is clear from the court record, "the promise of Impregilo to assume the economic charges relating to the conduct of pediatric hospital [Veraguas] in exchange for the award of the work of the Panama Metro was nothing but a blurred and indirectly to offer the President [Ricardo] Martinelli, through an entrepreneur closely linked to it [Rogelio Oruna] undue economic profit" reports La Prensa.