Trial against former presidents Martinelli and Varela in Panama postponed in Odebrecht case

The trial scheduled for next week against former Panamanian presidents Ricardo Martinelli and Juan Carlos Varela for allegedly accepting bribes from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht has been postponed again due to delays in legal procedures, the Judicial Branch reported this Friday.

This is the fifth time that the trial against Martinelli , who is in exile in Colombia, and Varela, a current member of the Central American Parliament , has been postponed, which has generated a climate of impunity and strong criticism of the Panamanian justice system.

According to the court document accessed by AFP, the trial was postponed and will take place from January 12 to February 13, 2026 because the court "has not been able to notify the hearing date" to one of the defendants in Colombia.

AFP contacted one of Martinelli's lawyers and an official from the Judicial Branch, but neither would confirm whether the accused is the former president.

The trial against the former presidents and about twenty other defendants for alleged money laundering, whose maximum penalty in Panama is 12 years in prison, was scheduled to begin next Tuesday in a court in the Panamanian capital.

"The Odebrecht case in Panama is the most perfect symbol of impunity," Lina Vega, president of Transparency International Panama , told AFP.

Martinelli has been in asylum in Colombia since May to avoid arrest for a nearly 11-year prison sentence against him in another money laundering case.

In 2022, a Panamanian court ordered Martinelli, 73, and Varela, 61, to be brought to trial.

According to the court order, there are payment orders from Odebrecht that, although they did not go directly to Martinelli's own accounts, he was allegedly the final recipient and had "full knowledge of the illicit origin" of the money.

Varela acknowledged receiving funds from Odebrecht as donations through third parties for his 2009 campaign, but denied receiving bribes while in office.

However, the prosecution claims that he also received payments "when he was already president" and when he was Martinelli's vice president, at a time when Odebrecht was benefiting from the awarding of multimillion-dollar contracts.

In 2016, Odebrecht pleaded guilty in a U.S. court to distributing more than $788 million in bribes, primarily in Latin America. In Panama, it admitted to paying $59 million in kickbacks in exchange for being awarded public works contracts.

Two of Martinelli's sons were sentenced in the United States in 2022 to two and a half years in prison after pleading guilty to receiving bribes from Odebrecht while their father was president.

Both Martinelli and Varela are banned from entering the United States, which accuses them of corruption.