Ex-president  Ricardo Martinelli cannot be prosecuted for illegal wiretapping of over 150 Panama citizens during his time in office as he has supposedly already been tried on three occasions by the National Assembly, between 2011 and 2013 according to a string of defense lawyers on Thursday, June 28.

The latest gambit comes nearly three years   after  Martinelli was a no-show at his original hearing and spent a year behind bars in a Miami detention center after two different US Federal judges ruled there was sufficient  evidence to warrant his extradition to face trial.

The move came after failed attempts  to get Martinelli  into a private hospital for  “ life threatening” health problems which were discounted by a team of specialists  from the Forensic Science Institute, and the prison doctor at El  Renacer Prison.

The lawyers popped up one after the other to present their case  that the  same facts have already been investigated and filed to the  Judge of Guarantees  Jerónimo Mejía

Martinelli arrived at the Supreme Court of   handcuffed, and wearing a red T-shirt

in support of Panama’s soccer team, which played its last World Cup game against Tunisia, osing 1-2

The defense presented several requests for "absolute" nullity, for alleged  and violations of due processincluding the theory of an alleged double judgment.

Carlos Carrillo, lawyer said  that his client was investigated in three occasions

by the National Assembly  Credentials Commission  for alleged espionage during his government. Two of the were filed the same day on January 5, 2011, and

were  presented by Juan Jované, Alberto Quirós Guardia, Rafael Benavides and others, and another interposed by Carlos Ernesto González de la Lastra and José Ramos, then

president and general secretary of the Popular Party,

The third complaint -according to Carrillo- was presented by Luis Ernesto Carles -current minister of Labor and vice minister of that same portfolio in the government of Martinelli-,

Carrillo said, cited Article 32 of the Constitution, which states that no one can be tried more than once for the same criminal, administrative, police or disciplinary case.

Dimas Guevara, another  lawyer of the former president, said that Martinelli cannot be punished for crimes against the inviolability of secrecy and the right to privacy, since The Constitution, in article 191, indicates that the president of the Republic can only be responsible for crimes against the international personality of the State or against the public administration. Guevara ignored in his plea that one of the illicit acts of his  client had precisely to do with the public administration, in the modality of embezzlement, reports La Prensa.

When the Court admitted the case, on June 8, 2015 no  authorization was requestedto the Central American Parliament (Parlacen), which -according to the defense- was a requirement for being  able to investigate the then deputy of the regional body.

"The Central American Court of Justice has recognized that Mr. Martinelli has a

special prerogative as a deputy of Parlacen ", remarked the defense attorney Luis Eduardo Camacho González.

After listening to the interventions of lawyers Carrillo, Guevara and Camacho González, the Judge  suspended the hearing until Monday, July 2, at 9:00 a.m., so that the parties have the opportunity to examine the documentation provided for the defense to sustain their accusations.