Panama.- A Panamanian court sentenced 12 people to 50 years in prison this Friday after they were found guilty of the massacre that occurred in December 2019 at La Joyita Penitentiary Center, located on the outskirts of the Panamanian capital, which left 13 inmates dead and another 11 injured.
According to a statement from the Judicial Branch, a trial court imposed a 30-year prison sentence on each of the convicted individuals for the crime of aggravated intentional homicide, as a result of the deaths, and an additional 20-year sentence for the injured for attempted aggravated intentional homicide.
“Which adds up to a total sentence of 50 years in prison for each one“, the statement highlighted.
The Judicial Branch also recalled that on May 30, after a three-week trial, a jury of conscience found the 12 defendants guilty as perpetrators of the 13 homicides and 11 attempted homicides recorded during the acts of violence at La Joyita.
This Friday, the convicted individuals followed the reading of the sentence telematically from the courtroom located within the same penitentiary center where they remain incarcerated.
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The events took place in December 2019 in pavilion 14 of La Joyita, a prison located on the eastern outskirts of the Panamanian capital, where an armed confrontation occurred between inmates allegedly linked to the Bagdad gang, one of the most powerful criminal organizations in Panama and related to drug trafficking and contract killing activities.
Following the brawl, authorities seized three AK-47 rifles, three Glock pistols, a .380 caliber pistol, a .38 caliber revolver, and a 9-millimeter pistol, according to official information.
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The massacre, considered one of the most violent episodes in the recent history of the Panamanian prison system, exposed the persistence of arms trafficking within the country’s prisons, a problem pointed out for years by the authorities.
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This month La Joyita returned to the headlines after 195 inmates escaped from the prison, an unprecedented event in Panama’s prison history in which three inmates also died, although most have already been captured.
In a series of prison raids, weapons, ammunition, and Starlink satellite antennas were seized, among other “prohibited items”.
