Former President Ricardo Martinelli of Panama has been found not guilty of political espionage after he was accused of spying on 150 people, including politicians, union leaders and journalists during his administration, and a court ordered his release.

The verdict read on Friday by a tribunal judge said that prosecutors had “failed to prove” their theory and the accusations had raised “reasonable doubts.”

The judges also lifted a measure that had banned Mr. Martinelli’s leaving the country. The former president, who governed from 2009 to 2014, was granted house arrest in June, after he had spent a year in preventive detention in a Panamanian jail.

Mr. Martinelli was extradited from Miami to Panama in June 2018. He had been living in the United States since 2015.

The Prosecutor’s Office had requested a 21-year sentence against Mr. Martinelli: four years for the interception of telecommunications without judicial authorization, four years for follow-up and surveillance without authorization, 10 years for seizure and three years for embezzlement.

At the end of oral arguments on Thursday, the prosecutor Ricaurte Gonzalez asked for “an exemplary conviction” against the former president to set a precedent in Panama. Mr. Gonzalez maintained that the evidence and testimony presented before the tribunal confirmed that during Mr. Martinelli’s term, he had “violated the right to privacy of hundreds of Panamanians.”

The tribunal said it recognized “indications” of “activities outside the law” in the National Security Council, but said that “questions arise that the evidence did not solve.” The court also said Mr. Martinelli’s rights had been violated in the prosecution, citing as one example that fact that his lawyers were not present during part of the investigation carried out by the Public Prosecution Service.

In a brief judge-approved intervention in the trial, Mr. Martinelli declared, “I am innocent,” after saying that the case against him was “a criminal conspiracy” fomented by a former ally, Juan Carlos Varela, who governed Panama from 2014 to 2019.

In April, Panama’s electoral tribunal forbade Mr. Martinelli, a 67-year-old supermarket tycoon, from running for mayor of Panama City and for a seat in Congress in elections in May, citing his failure to meet residency requirements.

Source: New York Times