New trial for Nestor Urrego after two weeks delay

PANAMA. The preliminary hearing of the alleged Colombian money launderer Jose Nelson Urrego will take start tomorrow. at the Eighth Penal Circuit Court.

The other people implicated in the case Marisol Plaza, Mirna Rodríguez, Rafael Jiménez, Enrique Vallejo, Elizabeth Miranda, Pedro Ospina, Miguel Sierra, and Aida Ojuela will also have to answer charge for crimes against the national economy (money laundering). The previous hearing on June 10 was suspended because defense lawyers were not present.

At that time, judge Raul Vergara said if the defense lawyers were absent again, the trial would take place with the accused being represented by public defenders as established by the law.

José Nelson Urrego was arrested in September 2007, in Isla Chapera in the Las Perlas Archipelago, after the National Police and anti-drugs units investigated the Colombian for several months.

After that, the First Drugs Prosecution opened case that currently has 230 volumes of evidence. The aim of the hearing is to determine if the nine defendants accused of money laundering should be taken to trial. The hearing will be presided over by Judge Raul Vergara and will take place in the Maritime Tribunal at 8:30 a.m.