FORMER SUPREME Court president Alejandro Moncada Luna has, in his time, seen many sentenced felons leave the courtroom on their way to serving long sentences.

If they were lucky, or high ranking, they  headed to El Renacer in Gamboa, viewed  by most as a “white collar” prison, but the majority, especially those without funds for a lawyer with “connections” have ended up in La Joya, Panama’s own  overcrowded hell hole, described recently by a Canadian judge as one of the worst in the world.

Moncada Luna is now himself serving time in El Renacer but, unlike  those rotting in La Joya, he does have a lawyer doing battle to get him out of his cell and into more comfortable digs for the balance of his sentence, ironically linked to his purchase  of an upscale apartment, not justified by his salary as a judge.

In a plea-bargain type of  deal, Moncda Luna ended up avoiding further charges which could  have sent him to jail for 12 years. He  was sentenced to five years for unjustified enrichment and forgery of public documents in March 2015.

A  National Assembly Compliance Tribunal, tasked with monitoring  his sentencing  , began at 9:45 a.m Friday, May 26   to review his health.

Ramiro Jarvis, a lawyer for Moncada Luna ­ who was  not present at the hearing ­ asked the court to grant house arrest, arguing that his client has severe hypertension, has experienced mental problems and lost more than 60 pounds. He also noted that he has served half his sentence.

Moncada Luna was sentenced to five years for unjustified enrichment and forgery of public documents in March 2015.

The prosecutor of this who closed the deal, letting  Moncada Luna off a longer sentence was Deputy Pedro Miguel González.

But on Friday, not even a prominent lawyer  could persuade the Tribunal to rule on the request, to move him  to house arrest  because, in  a Catch 22 situation, although the Assembly rules on judges and vice-versa, Moncada Luna is no longer a judge, and the Tribunal  announced  it cannot rule on his sentence,