Luis Martinelli Linares, the son of former Panama president Ricardo Martinelli poses a “significant risk” of escape said the prosecutor's office for the Eastern District of New York when requesting a federal judge to order his permanent arrest after his extradition from Guatemala on  Monday, November 15.

"The defendant presents a substantial and proven flight risk, and must be detained," says a note delivered by prosecutor Alixandra Smith signed by attorneys from the United States Department of Justice.

The note was delivered to Magistrate Judge Marcia M. Henry, shortly before the defendant's arrival on US soil at 6:25 pm.

It is not yet known when Martinelli Linares will be taken before federal judge Raymond Dearie to hear the indictment formally presented against him, last February, for allegedly participating in a plot to launder bribes paid by Odebrecht reports La Prensa.

The note states that Martinelli Linares, advised by an American lawyer, had agreed to a plea agreement to resolve his procedural situation, but approximately on June 25, 2020, when the negotiation was in the final stretch and without notifying the authorities, he evaded border controls and fled in a boat to the Bahamas. The other son of the former president also participated in the plea agreement.

The note said that once in the Bahamas, the brothers, and, the wife and daughters of Luis Enrique, boarded a private jet with the intention of returning to Panama, but given the restrictions at that time, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there was a change in plans and the plane had to land first in Costa Rica and then in El Salvador. After a few days, unable to fly to Panama, the two brothers headed to the border with Guatemala they “circumvented” the restriction using diplomatic credentials “that falsely accredited them as officials of the Central American Parliament” (Parlacen). Luis Enrique's wife and daughters stayed in a hotel in El Salvador. The two brothers were captured on July 6, 2020, when they were preparing to take a private plane to Panama.

Since then and until his extradition, Luis Enrique was detained in the Mariscal Zavala military prison, where his brother remains, waiting for the US embassy in Guatemala to define the date of his transfer

Prosecutor Smith supports the need to maintain the detention of Luis Enrique in the fact that, during the last 15 months, the defendant presented multiple appeals in different instances in Guatemala, to avoid his surrender to the US.

The prosecutor maintains that the requested preventive detention is consistent with the seriousness of the crimes attributed to him and the amount of evidence accumulated against him. She adds that Luis Enrique Martinelli is well aware of the accusation and the evidence against him, given that the negotiation to reach a plea deal was almost complete when he evaded the US authorities in June 2020.

Fled without warning
“Only two days after the government communicated to his lawyer about some final terms of his agreement, Luis Martinelli, along with his family and brother , fled the United States, without warning, an effort that required boats , private planes and invalid diplomatic credentials, just to enter Panama where the Constitution prevents the extradition of its nationals.

It also emphasizes the dual nationality of the accused: Panamanian and Italian, and the family fortune, which allows him to have sufficient means to escape. It notes that the plane that was waiting for them in Guatemala, when he was captured on July 6, 2020, belongs to his family.

In the indictment presented to the Court on February 4, prosecutors brought three charges against the brothers: one for allegedly conspiring to launder money, and two more, for withholding information about money laundering. Luis Enrique faces two additional charges, for the alleged use of money obtained through money laundering.

The accusation is based on events allegedly committed between August 2009 and September 2015, largely coinciding with his father's presidential term.

Alixandra Smith is the same prosecutor who brought the case against Odebrecht which closed with an agreement,  in which the construction company pleaded guilty to violating the Law against Corrupt Practices and confessed to having paid almost $800 million in bribes to officials and politicians from various countries, including Panama.

It is from Odebrecht's confession that the New York prosecutors assemble the case against the Martinelli Linares brothers, each accused of participating in the scheme as intermediaries in the receipt and payment of approximately $28 million in bribes that would benefit “ former high-ranking member of the government of Panama ”. It is not specified who this "high-ranking" officer would be, but it added that he is a close relative of Ricardo Alberto and Luis Enrique.