Judge nixes bid to extract $5.5 million from La Prensa and orders payment of $581,000 costs

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Judge nixes bid to extract $5.5 million from La Prensa and orders payment of $581,000 costs

Posted 29/06/2023

A civil judge has denied Ernesto Pérez Balladares (1994-1999) the compensation of $5.5 million that the former president has demanded from Corporación La Prensa, SA (Corprensa) for alleged damages for 11 years. Instead, she ordered him to pay $581,000 in costs, in favor of the defendant, as well as other expenses derived from the process.

The decision was adopted Friday, June 23, by the Fifteenth Civil Circuit Judge, Lina Castro de León, who three years ago, at the request of Pérez Balladares, had ordered a kidnapping, for a concurrence of up to $1.13 million, of assets and Corprensa accounts.

Now, Judge Castro has determined that the La Prensa publications that, according to the plaintiff, caused him non-pecuniary damage, were taken from the prosecutor's hearing on February 28, 2011, prepared by the Special Prosecutor's Office against Organized Crime, on the funds from gambling halls that were benefited from concessions during the administration of Pérez Balladares. of Pérez Balladares for the alleged commission of the crime of money laundering. According to Pérez Balladares, the publications; caused an injury to his honor, reputation, affections, or feelings and he argued that they arose from the defendant's guilty action. In her ruling Judge Castro,  alludes to a series of proceedings carried out by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office and points out that it is clear that the agent of the Public Ministry did indeed request authorization to investigate the possible commission of a criminal act related to checks related to the investigation. that appears in the content of one of the news items published in La Prensa. The judge cited part of the summary of this case where it is stated that: " In the file of the case against the former ruler there are copies of the two checks signed by Dora Boyd de Pérez Balladares (his wife), but the additional information about the account in the Bahamas was forwarded to the Organized Crime Prosecutor's Office last January (2011), after certification by the Security Council.

"As this complementary information was not included in the file against Pérez Balladares and therefore not in the extension hearing sent on February 28 by Prosecutor Marcelino Aguilar to the Ninth Criminal Court, the MP requested authorization from said court to initiate the investigation of a new summary".For this reason, the judge in her ruling indicated that her Court cannot infer that the defendant today made false statements since it is clear that said information was extracted from the Expansion Fiscal View No.6, of February 28, 2011, in which even includes images of the checks.

"In this sense, we must highlight that the First Superior Court of the First Judicial District, through its ruling of August 25, 2017, issued within the Ordinary Process proposed by ARGENTINA BARRERA FLORES against CORPORACIÓN LA PRENSA, SA established that when the media publish: "...something that a third party or official entity, in this case, has sustained, revealing the source of the news, the defendant cannot be sentenced to compensate the plaintiff for having published) fake news.

For this reason, the judge denied the claim formulated, with the corresponding sentence on costs.

https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/judge-nixes-bid-to-extract-55-million-from-la-prensa-and-orders-payment-of-581000-costs