(MENAFN- Newsroom Panama) As Panama continues to maintain its money laundering status in the European Union. President Laurentino Cortizo spoke on Thursday October 8 of the need for the country's justice system to be effective,. 'A Public Ministry is required to advance important investigations: money laundering. That is extremely important research. It is not only moving forward, but reaching sentences. Let [the cases] go to the final phase. It is useless to have good laws if the effectiveness of the system is not good, " he said.
'The Public Ministry is making a great effort and the Attorney General said that the process in some cases is going as it is,[slowly] because we don't want the cases to fall as a result of an improper process, he said.
'No judge of the Court has received a call from the president or a third party to do absolutely nothing. That is not the role we want (...) There are people who think that from the Executive we should be putting together and doling out cases. That is very bad for a system, because our position is temporary , he explained.
Cortizo's meeting took place on the same day as the visit to Panama by the US State Councilor Ulrich Brechbuhl. In recent months, the US message for Panama and Central America has focused on the importance of punishing corruption and, above all, on the existence of convictions in the processes in which money laundering is investigated.
Two former presidents and a score of former high ranking officials are facing money laundering investigations.
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