LAWYERS struggling to keep former president Ricardo Martinelli from facing justice in Panama got  another thumbs down on Thursday August 4.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said  that it has turned down a petition submitted  by his legal team  to reconsider an earlier decision to move ahead with the extradition process  for the absconding  former leader.

The ministry rejected the initial arguments of the defense as "inadmissible." That decision was issued July 11.

The ministry also rejected a petition of unconstitutionality in the legal process.

It issued the ruling based on the fact that the decision by the Supreme Court to ask for the extradition of Martinelli was "final, unappealable and binding."

Martinelli has been living in exile in Miami in  the United States since January 2015, but still  endeavors to pull the strings for his disaffected CD party, which is now split into two groups in the National Assembly.