Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison said officials threatened its employees with criminal prosecution if they refused to leave after a court ruling canceling its contracts was finalized.
Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison said Tuesday that Panama authorities had threatened its employees with criminal prosecution if they defied orders to leave two strategic canal ports at the center of a legal battle that has embroiled Beijing and Washington.
CK Hutchison said Panama’s decision to cancel key port contracts and grant temporary licenses to the Danish shipping company Maersk and the Geneva-based Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) was “unlawful” as it considers national and international legal action against the country.
Panama on Monday published in its official gazette a Supreme Court ruling canceling key port contracts held by a subsidiary of CK Hutchison, known as Panama Ports Company (PPC).
The publication finalizes the legal annulment of concessions for the Balboa and Cristobal terminals near the Panama Canal, which Panama Ports Company, a subsidiary of CK Hutchison, had operated for nearly three decades.