The trial of former president  Ricardo Martinelli, scheduled for June 22 was postponed to July 5, while forensic examinations are carried out to verify his state of health after spinal surgery on Sunday.

Also the trial court - made up of judges Ibeth Francois, Jennifer Saavedra, and Marisol Osorio - assigned a public defender to Martinelli, who will represent him in the event that neither he nor his lawyers appear on July 5.

The trial was due to begin on Tuesday, 22, but neither Martinelli nor his lawyers attended, and instead sent certificates of medical incapacity, which will also be verified by the staff of the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences (Imelcf).

The night before it was learned that the ex-president is hospitalized, convalescing from a "major surgery" on the spine.

The former president is at the Pacifica Salud Hospital, in Punta Pacifica, where on Sunday he underwent a spinal operation by neurosurgeon Waltter Kravcio .

According to Martinelli's spokesman, Luis Eduardo Camacho, the former president will be "in recovery" for six months and then he will have to do therapy.

The circus

“Now begins a new ordeal for Mr. Martinelli. Now he is going to have a procession of diseases, health problems, body aches ... So this will depend on the Court ... Indeed, it has all the mechanisms to prevent this from being a circus again, as in the previous hearing. For that, legal and technological instruments are available, so that Mr. Martinelli, at rest, can see the hearing and be aware of everything that is happening, ”said Mitchell Doens, plaintiff victim.

It is not the first time that Martinelli has appealed to his medical condition reports La Prensa . In the intermediate phase, he alleged several ailments: hypertension, hernias, myopia, glaucoma, anxiety ... On one occasion, the then magistrate Jerónimo Mejía , acting as judge of guarantees, visited him at the Santo Tomás Hospital, with a group of forensics, to verify that, in effect, he was prevented from appearing. It was then determined that his condition was stable and that he could appear. Mejía, had declared him "in absentia" in December 2015 because he was absent from the process, which is why his capture and extradition from the United States was arranged, which finally happened on June 12, 2018.

Balbina Herrera, also a complainant victim, indicated that the important thing is that the trial formally begins, although it must later be suspended so that the forensics examine the accused in the hospital.

"Let public opinion know L that the same hospital where he is now is where Mr. Cucalón was," Herrera warned, referring to the former General Director of Revenue, Luis Cucalón, who was admitted to the Punta Pacifica hospital on September 7 2015 to September 4, 2017, in order to evade the process in which he was convicted of embezzlement and corruption of officials.