TV IMAGES of adolescents screaming for help as they were engulfed in flames while police stood by and mocked them were shown for  in a Panama courtroom on Thursday, Augusrn6b to the 12 accused in the death of five inmates in the Tocumen Compliance Center.
They watched the video of what happened on Sunday January 9, during their trial that takes place in the Second Superior Court.
The video was provided by the Public Services Authority (ASEP) showing the news of Channel 2 on January 9, 10 and 11, 2011. Two policemen can be seen pushing tear gas canisters through the window of the cell 6 and later the fire starting.
"I suffer from asthma, help sir" said one of the inmates affected by tear gas. Then, once the fire started, other inmates yelled, "We 'burning burning guys .... we are burning" while flames were visible. From outside the police made jokes, some laughing and others responding:
"Hold on now, you're a man," "Why are you complaining when before you were screaming", "Why cry now if before you were happy>" " leave through the door, ", "ai, ai, ai, ai, ai," were the the police responses to the minors seen and heard on the video. Interviews with then Government Minister Roxana Mendez and Deputy Minister Luis Hincapie, leaders of civil society and Santo Tomas Hospital doctors were also shown.
The mother of Jose Frias, one of the dead boys, said her son was due for release on January 16, seven days after the incident.
They lso ran an interview with the Deputy Commissioner Luis Ortega and Sergeant Luz Padilla, two of the nine police officers accused.
Ortega admitted that h allowed the entry of the two cameramen from Channel 2 and Channel 13 to the perimeter fence of the center for minors. He claimed at the time that those who shouted mocking phrases, were custodians and not police.
Padilla said the riot was over lack of water and food, and the prisoners opened padlocks of other cells to attack rivals. In addition they caused an earlier fire which was put out by the Panama Fire Department
Padilla said that cell 6 was the last cell in the pavilion and was padlocked until the fire was discovered.
Meanwhile, the cameraman Pompilio Campos, who then worked for Channel 2, told the court he recorded the video showing two people throwing tear gas canisters through the window of the cell.
He took the unedited video to the studio which decided on the sequence for viewing