The preliminary hearing of 543 people for alleged embezzlement in the "red devils" (diablos rojos)  bus compensation process,  opened on Monday, March 14  in the Roberto Druán Arena, where the parties focused on the argument of the prescription of the case which caused a $24 million injury to the State.

The anti-corruption prosecutor Anilú Batista assured that the prescription theory lacks a legal foundation.

Batista said that there are pronouncements of the courts in which the alleged prescription of the criminal action, in this case, has already been aired and that they have been categorically rejected.

Meanwhile, several lawyers announced the presentation of incidents of prescription of the criminal activity.

Defense attorney Carlos Herrera Morán argued that the case is time-barred since more than 12 years have elapsed since the events and that the crime under investigation is punishable by 10 years in prison, so it is clearly time-barred.

it was decided to hold the hearing at the arena given the large number of defendants and lawyers participating, in addition to the secretarial staff of the First Liquidator Court of Criminal Cases of the First Judicial Circuit of Panama. The office is in charge of Judge Agueda Rentería.

Batista explained that provisional and definitive dismissals have been requested at the tax hearing, in addition to the summons to trial.

"There are enough elements collected in the investigation to support this request made by the MP to call for trial against 61 officials," the prosecutor remarked.

The hearing will last several weeks, taking into account the number of defendants. Batista said that each of the defendants was assigned a public defender.

This investigation began after an audit by the Comptroller General revealed that between 2009 and 2014 there were irregularities in the compensation process for the “red devils” buses. At that time, above all, possible anomalies in compensation to bus owners came to light, which gave way to the Metro Bus.