Draft bill 158.

Summary.

The draft bill proposes adding item 10 to Article 49 of Law 467 of April 24, 2025. That article governs provisional measures community judges may order to secure the outcome of proceedings and safeguard peace and peaceful coexistence within a corregimiento (district). The proposed item establishes a specific circumstance in which a community judge would impose a provisional prohibition on entering or visiting an area. The measure concerns an apprehension in flagrante delicto for the possible commission of personal injury, theft or robbery, in any of their forms.

The prohibition would apply when the apprehension occurs within the Historic Monumental Complex of Casco Antiguo, the Amador Causeway—described in the text as Amador Avenue from Van Hock Street to Flamenco Island (Isla Flamenco)—Vía Argentina or Calle Uruguay, in Panama City (Ciudad de Panamá). The measure’s territorial scope is tied to the area where the specified circumstance occurs. The proposed item assigns the community judge responsibility for imposing the provisional measure on the apprehended person. Its application rests on the possible commission of one of the listed offenses and an apprehension in flagrante delicto within one of those areas.

If the case file must be referred to the competent authority, the community judge would impose the prohibition before making that referral. The competent authority could subsequently review the measure. The proposal thus places the community judge’s provisional decision before transfer of the file while providing for review by the authority to which the case is referred. This procedure forms part of the proposed addition to the provisional measures governed by Article 49.

To assist the National Police (Policía Nacional) in enforcing the prohibition, establishments and businesses domiciled in the listed areas could request the identification and photograph of persons subject to the measure from the community judge. Access to those data would serve that enforcement purpose. Recipients would have to safeguard the confidentiality of the information supplied and use it exclusively for the purposes of the proposed provision. The ability to request the information is limited to establishments and businesses domiciled in the areas covered by the proposed item.

Article 2 reiterates that the amendment adds item 10 to Article 49 of Law 467 of April 24, 2025. Article 3 provides that the proposed law would take effect on the day following its promulgation. The draft bill concerns the National Police, community judges and the competent authority receiving case files. Its provisions could also affect establishments and businesses in the named areas and persons apprehended under the circumstances it describes.