Panama's ex-president Martinelli departs for asylum in Colombia

Colombia granted asylum to Panama's former President Ricardo Martinelli, Colombian authorities said on Saturday, and two sources close to the ex-president said that he had departed the Nicaraguan embassy in Panama City for Colombia.

Martinelli, who was sentenced to over a decade in prison in Panama for money laundering, has been living in the Nicaraguan embassy in Panama City since February last year, after Panama's Supreme Court confirmed his sentence.

Panamanian authorities said in a statement that they offered the ex-president safe passage from the embassy to a local airport in "full compliance with the obligations set forth in the 1928 Convention on Asylum and the 1933 Convention on Political Asylum."

Colombia's foreign ministry said the granting of asylum to Martinelli was "part of Colombia's humanist tradition of protecting people who are persecuted for political reasons."