Patria Portugal, former Ombudsman, will serve eight years in prison for aggravated embezzlement.

Panama City, Jun 21 (RHC) Panama's main news media reflect Wednesday the arrest of former Ombudsman Patria Portugal (2011-2013), convicted in 2022 for a crime against Public Administration.

Some Panamanian news reflect that the former official will serve eight years in prison for aggravated embezzlement, to the detriment of the institution she headed, which occurred in 2012.

The order was made effective the day before in the Accusatory Criminal System, after the conclusion of a hearing requested by the Prosecutor's Office.

Other news reports recall that Patria Portugal was dismissed by the National Assembly in August 2013 after being accused of alleged cost overruns and irregularities in the direct contracting of two companies for the redesign of the institution's website and an image change consultancy.

According to the investigations, in April 2011, Portugal signed as Ombudsman a contract with the company Imaginarium Studio, S.A., for an amount of 249 thousand 845 dollars for the redesign of the entity's web page, and the other in July 2013, in favor of En Avant, S.A., for 199 thousand 983 dollars, for staff training.

The Public Prosecutor's Office proved that the former official made direct contracts with these companies without proper justification, claiming 'Evident Urgency ", which led to the embezzlement of funds from the public entity she headed, which had the appropriate personnel for this study.

Following a criminal trial that lasted until August 2020, the former official was found guilty of embezzlement and in September 2022, the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) confirmed the sentence to 96 months of imprisonment.

In December 2022, the Criminal Chamber of the CSJ rejected a request for clarification of the sentence after determining that the appeal was inadmissible, the newspapers indicated. (Source: PL)