image source, Martin Bernetti/AFP via Getty Images
- the author, Anna Lamche
- the role, BBC News
A Panamanian court has acquitted all 28 people charged with money laundering in connection with the Panama Papers scandal, which began in April.
Secret financial documents were leaked in 2016, revealing how some of the world's richest and most powerful people use tax havens to hide their wealth.
Among those pardoned were Jurgen Mossack and the late Ramon Fonseca, founders of Mossack Fonseca, the defunct law firm at the center of the scandal.
Judge Balosa Marquinez said the evidence considered by the court was “not sufficient” to determine the defendants' criminal responsibility.
During the trial, prosecutors sought the maximum 12-year sentence for money laundering for both Mr. Mossack and Mr. Fonseca, who died in hospital in May.
Both Mr Mossack and Mr Fonseca denied that they, their firm or their employees had acted illegally.
According to local news reports, the trial in Panama City lasted 85 hours, with 27 witnesses testifying and more than 50 pieces of documentary evidence being considered.
After lengthy deliberations, the judge ruled that the evidence collected from Mossack Fonseca's servers was not collected in accordance with due process and dismissed all criminal charges against the defendants.
The biggest data leak in history, the Panama Papers, released 11 million documents to the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung and shared them with an international team of journalists.
In 2017, Mossack Fonseca said the firm had suffered a computer hack and that the leaked information was being misrepresented.
Overall the data revealed links to 12 current or former heads of state and government, including dictators, accused of embezzling money from their own countries.