MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Nicaraguan leader accused of money laundering in Panama

A Panamanian judge ruled there was enough evidence to move ahead with the trial of former Nicaraguan president Arnoldo Aleman and issued an arrest order for the accused on charges of money laundering.

Panamanian Judge Adolfo Mejia also extended an arrest warrant for Mr. Aleman's wife, father in law and the head of his administration's internal revenue service. However the judge found insufficient evidence to take seven other close associates of Aleman to trial on the same charges, which had been filed by Panama's anti-corruption prosecutor.

The judge wrote May 15 that on reviewing evidence, he found "sufficient indications of links" among Aleman, his wife, Maria Fernanda Flores de Aleman, her father, Jose Antonio Flores, and former Nicaraguan internal revenue chief Byron Jerez.

Prosecutors in Panama accused the former Nicaraguan president and the other suspects March 30 of laundering some 58 million US dollars in government funds.

Panama's anti-corruption prosecutor, Mercedes de Leon, said at a preliminary hearing that Aleman, --who ruled Nicaragua from 1997 to 2002--, and associates diverted 58.2 million US dollars from the Nicaraguan Treasury to accounts in a dozen Panamanian banks, using some 60 public companies created in Panama to cover up the transfers.

"The Nicaraguan government funds were transferred from one (Panamanian bank) account to another" De Leon said, adding that a portion of the money was later transferred to other countries.

Aleman was convicted in December 2003 and sentenced to 20 years in prison for embezzling tens of millions of dollars of public funds while president. Initially jailed after that verdict, he was shifted to house arrest for reasons of poor health; currently, he enjoys what amounts to probation while he pursues an appeal of his conviction.

Panamanian prosecutors opened an investigation on former president Aleman and his associated accused in the case in 2002.