CORRUPTION watchers from around the world, spearheaded by Transparency International will  be awaiting the  Thursday, Aug.31 decision of the South Florida judge handling Panama's  request for the extradition of ex-president  Ricardo Martinelli to face a  wiretapping and embezzlement trial which if found guilty could see him behind bars for decades, with multiple other corruption charges waiting in the wings.

If the judge decides to hand him over, the bureaucratic formalities could take months but Martinelli would remain in detention. If extradition is denied,  he could be exchanging his sparse cell for the comforts of his $8.2 million Coral Gables mansion, and celebrate the verdict with fresh access to his Twitter account and a call for political asylum in the US.

The decision will also impact on the future of the Democratic Change (CD) party he created to pave his way to the presidential palace, and to the password to the Panama branch of Aladdin’s cave. Some 40 others, who also knew the magic phrase are currently wending their way through Panama’s laborious justice system.

Meanwhile Transparency International, which believes that rulers should be forced to pay for their sins, locally described as “irregularities, ” promises a full commentary on Friday and we will know if  the La Prensa political cartoonist will need a new emoticon to explain the status  of the former Panama autocrat.

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