Panama’s LNB former employees withdraw complaints against lottery director

Two former officials of Panama's Lotería Nacional de Beneficencia who had filed lawsuits against Director Gloriela Del Río have withdrawn their complaints.
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Two former officials of the Lotería Nacional de Beneficencia (LNB) of Panama who had filed lawsuits against the Director Gloriela Del Río have withdrawn their complaints as they claim that they were victims of manipulation by the Cambio Democrático (CD) political party.

The lawsuits, which were dismissed earlier this week, had been filed against Del Rio, the President of the Partido Liberal Republicano Nacionalista (Molirena) Francisco Alemán and other officials who had been accused of using state resources to promote the political party.

According to La Estrella de Panamá, the former officials Yinger Ruiz and Yajaira Benavides fired their lawyer Aníbal Chéry, who represents CD politicians, and hired Vidal Pérez to dismiss the complaints.

Ruiz and Benavides revealed that CD took advantage of the complaints to attack the Molinera leaders through the connection with Chéry, who had previously supported the presidential candidate Rómulo Roux.

“They constantly called and harassed me to file a complaint against the Director and against Alemán. They asked me to protest and bring my five kids with disabilities to talk to the media, just to pressure [Molinera] publicly. I don’t want to put myself through that anymore,” Ruiz said.

The Electoral Prosecutor’s Office had already decided to dismiss seven lawsuits filed by Chéry in the representation of former employees against the LNB and affirmed that “it’s not our job to investigate people but facts,” and it set that “there were not enough elements to start a formal investigation.”