Yet another political prisoner in Panama chooses to raise his voice from behind bars. Porfirio “Bolita” Ellis has again publicly condemned the PM and specifically the prosecutor in charge of his case, Zuleyka Moore, for violating his legal and human rights in what he calls “a case of political persecution”. Denouncing that he has been set up and punished by the PM for refusing to accuse former President Ricardo Martinelli in yet another investigation that is being carried out against him, Mr. Ellis declared that “this is one big media spectacle: there is no other justification for my preventive detention”.
Mr. Ellis, who is being detained for the risk that he may tamper with the evidence, ridiculed the PM by pointing out how “others are given a full ten days to shred all incriminating evidence”, in clear reference to the PM’s handling of the Mossack Fonseca case. No preventive detention has applied to anyone involved in the latter.Rogelio Cruz, Mr. Ellis’ lawyer, echoed his client’s protestations that “in Panama, there is today no fair trial – what is worse, there is a manifest abuse of criminal prosecutions”, adding that “double standards, especially in regards to the use of preventive detentions, are everywhere you look”.
