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### Viewing cable 04PANAMA823, PANAMANIAN SUPREME COURT THROWS OUT CHARGES

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Reference ID | Created | Released | Classification | Origin
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
04PANAMA823 | 2004-04-07 19:29 | 2011-04-29 00:00 | SECRET | Embassy Panama

`

    This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

` `

    S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 PANAMA 000823
    SIPDIS

    DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/CEN/BRIGHAM
    DEPARTMENT PLEASE PASS TO USAID ADOLFO FRANCO (AA/LAC),
    STEVE HENDRIX (LAC/RSD), AND ROBERT KHAN (LAC/CEN)

    E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/05/2009
    TAGS: PARM PREL KCOR PTER KJUS PM NI CO GA POLITICS FOREIGN POLICY
    SUBJECT: PANAMANIAN SUPREME COURT THROWS OUT CHARGES
    AGAINST ISRAELI ARMS SMUGGLER

    REF: A. 02 PANAMA 2820
         ¶B. 02 PANAMA 1518
         ¶C. 03 PANAMA 2451
         ¶D. 03 PANAMA 3294
         ¶E. PANAMA 0730

    Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Christopher J. McMullen for reasons 1.
    4 (b) & (d)

    SUMMARY: Arms Trafficker Walks
    ------------------------------
    ¶1. (C) Citing "lack of jurisdiction," by an 8-1 vote,
    Panama's Supreme Court has terminated Public Ministry
    investigations of all charges against Israeli national Shimon
    Yalin Yelinek, currently residing in Panama, for his alleged
    role in smuggling Nicaraguan military weapons to the
    paramilitary United Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC).  More
    than one source has alleged that all eight justices who voted
    for the decision received bribes. With the Supreme Court's
    action, announced in print and television media during the
    week of March 29, there are no other charges pending against
    Yelinek in Panama or any other country, including the United
    States.  (NOTE: Yelinek is the subject of an ongoing DEA
    money laundering investigation. END NOTE.)  Nicaraguan
    authorities have not brought charges against Yelinek or any
    Otterloo defendants, while Colombian authorities have charged
    two Otterloo defendants, but not Yelinek, GOP sources told
    EmbOffs.  Embassy is assessing appropriate responses to the
    Court's latest questionable decision, which has brought this
    institution to a new low in terms of credibility.  END
    SUMMARY.

    The lone dissenting opinion
    ---------------------------
    ¶2. (C) The Supreme Court's decision that Panamanian Courts
    have no jurisdiction in the Otterloo case surprised many
    observers, given the fact that the defendants had been
    charged with falsifying Panamanian National Police documents
    and using a Panamanian flagged vessel, owned by a company
    headquartered in Panama.  Lone dissenting Supreme Court
    Justice Adan Arnulfo Arjona (please protect) told AID
    Director on April 1 that the majority ruled on issues he
    believes should have been left to lower courts.

    ¶3. (C) Arjona lamented that since taking leadership of the
    Court in January 2004, Supreme Court President Cesar Pereira
    Burgos is making the Court's decisions and operations more
    and more opaque, restricting public access to Court opinions
    and doing away with internet publication of rulings, the
    latter an AID-funded initiative the Court took under Arjona.
    Arjona criticized Pereira for having ruled differently on two
    nearly identical cases.  An April 4 La Prensa article cites
    the same two cases, and chides the Court for lack of
    consistency, comparing Court decision-making to a child
    picking petals from a daisy.  Under Pereira, the Court has
    rejected any reliance on precedent, calling into doubt this
    institution's credibility with the Panamanian public.

    Who is Carlos Carrillo?
    -----------------------
    ¶4. (C) Arjona alerted AID Director that Yelinek's Panamanian
    lawyer, Carlos E. Carrillo, is one to watch.  Carrillo is the
    attorney who defended sitting Legislator Pedro Miguel
    Gonzalez, wanted for the 1992 murder of U.S. Army Sargeant
    Zak Hernandez (Ref. D), and then helped prosecute former
    Judicial Technical Police Director Jaime Abad on trumped up
    charges of evidence tampering. (Abad had led the
    investigation in the Gonzalez case).  Carrillo also
    represented alleged CEMIS bag-man and PRD Legislator Mateo
    Castillero.  (NOTE: The CEMIS scandal involved another
    Supreme Court decision that has raised concerns about
    corruption within this institution. See Reftel C for details.
    END NOTE.)  Recently Carrillo has represented the sister of
    drug trafficker Jesus Arcangel Henao Montoya as well former
    President Ernesto Perez Balladares (EPB) in other
    controversial cases tried before Panama's Supreme Court.
    (EPB won his case, and it appears that Lorena Henao Montoya
    also will.)
    Case Details
    ------------
    ¶5. (S) According to reftel B, in November 2001, the suspect
    cargo vessel Otterloo, delivered from Puerto El Bluff,
    Nicaragua, to Turbo, Colombia, 14 containers of Nicaraguan
    military weapons -- approximately 3,000 AK-M rifles and five
    million rounds of ammunition.  In January 2002, the
    Panamanian National Police (PNP) seized and searched the
    Otterloo in Panamanian waters after receiving a tip from
    Colombian authorities.  The guns and ammo never were
    recovered, but the size and nature of the shipment were
    pieced together by police work and intel reports.  The PNP
    discovered two conflicting sets of cargo records and took
    statements from the ship's crew regarding the Otterloo's true
    cargo.  Nicaraguan officials then produced a weapons purchase
    order allegedly authorized by mid-level PNP officials that
    was later proved to be a forgery.  The document was traced to
    Shimon Yalin Yelinek and two Israeli nationals residing in
    Guatemala.  Yelinek faced charges in Panama for forgery and
    conspiracy in the illegal shipment of weapons and was
    released on $750,000 bail.  A specially formed OAS commission
    implicated Yelinek, but exonerated Panamanian authorities.

    ¶6. (C) The Supreme Court's majority decision to quash the
    Yelinek case cites a lack of evidentiary ties (nexus) to
    Panama to allow Panama's Supreme Court to assert
    jurisdiction.  The justices ruled that there is no evidence
    that meetings took place in Panama to purchase the weapons
    and ammunition, that the purchase order was not issued in
    Panama, and dismissed forgery charges.  The ruling ignores
    the Otterloo's Panamanian flag (and legal responsibilities
    under that registry) and the fact that the forged purchase
    order was a Panamanian National Police (PNP) document.

    Comment: Next Steps
    -------------------
    ¶7. (C) In yet another example of Panama's Supreme Court
    deep-sixing a high profile corruption case on trumped-up
    technicalities, Panamanians are becoming increasingly
    disenchanted with their high court.  (NOTE: Panama's press
    closely covered the Yelinek case and reported a blow-by-blow
    of bribery accusations and deliberations in the equally
    egregious multi-million CEMIS case, which the Supreme Court
    threw out on September 17, 2003. END NOTE.)  Despite his
    insistence that complainants exhaust all other options before
    filing constitutional claims with the Supreme Court, Pereira
    accepted another particularly contentious case, ordering the
    immediate release of Former President Perez Balladares'
    assets, which the Comptroller General's office froze based on
    EPB's ties to the PECC scandal. (See Reftel D.)

    ¶8. (C) DEA's investigation of Yelinek continues.  DEA Panama
    has requested the assistance of DOJ's Assets Forfeiture Money
    Laundering (AFML) Section for an eventual prosecution in the
    United States.  Despite reports that Yelinek is trying to
    "expedite" his naturalization as a Panamanian citizen, high
    GOP officials are apparently angry with the ruling and
    seeking to have Yelinek's residency revoked in order to expel
    him from Panama.  Panama's constitution prohibits extradition
    of Panamanian citizens, which would complicate future US
    prosecution of a case against him if he were to gain
    citizenship.
     ¶9. (C) We believe that this type of egregious corruption in
    the courts poses a threat to U.S. economic and security
    interests in Panama.  Unfortunately, decisions driven by
    factors other than jurisprudence are seen at all levels of
    Panama's judicial system.  The lack of positive role models
    at the top appears to drive the lack of political will among
    leaders to tackle fundamental weaknesses in the judiciary.
    Expressions of USG concern would have the greatest
    demonstration effect if directed at the top of the judicial
    hierarchy.  Thus, Embassy is including whether a 212(f) visa
    revocation would be appropriate for any of the individuals
    involved in this case in its assessment of options for
    responding to the Supreme Court's latest dubious decision.
    Another option we will consider is suspending USAID's
    assistance to the Supreme Court, channeling it instead to
    civil society.

    MCMULLEN

`