On Monday morning, the judges of the Supreme Court of Justice unanimously decided to open a disciplinary process against Judge Celso Gamboa Sánchez, who occupies a position in Court III. The Organic Law of the Judicial Power, Article 182, grants the Full Court the power to exercise disciplinary regime over its members.
The procedure will be in the hands of Judge Luis Porfirio Sánchez.
Gamboa traveled to Panama in October 2016 and “ran into” cement importer Juan Carlos Bolaños, questioned over two lines of credit granted by the Bank of Costa Rica, among others. Both Gamboa’s and Bolaños’ ticket were booked on October 7th, just two days before they both traveled to Panama.
Gamboa, who acknowledged that he spent time with Bolaños during that trip, has denied that they travel together and says it was all a coincidence, insisting that the reason for his trip was to go and buy clothes for his baby.
According to Panama records, Judge Gamboa and the cement importer left Costa Rica on Sunday, October 9th, 2016 on Copa Airlines flight CM 0163 and returned on Monday, October 11th, on flight CM 0162 of the same company.
For this trip, Judge Gamboa used his regular passport to leave the country, but left Panama and entered Costa Rica with his diplomatic passport.
The press consulted the press office of the Judicial Branch on the official trips of the judges for the month of October 2016. Gamboa did not make any official trip.