Permit me to give some background to this, which I didn't have time to do earlier. I think there are lessons here for all of us expats in how far we go in fighting corruption, I'm sorry to say.
First off, one paper is saying it was an attempted kidnapping gone wrong. The Austrian & his Mexican wife, (both I understand have Dominican citizenship) resisted the attempted kidnapping which happened around 10.45am this morning. The husband is now dead & the wife had surgery this afternoon & is in a serious condition.
Apuñalan austr?*aco en Playa Laguna, Sosua
Now the history. Three years ago the Mexican lady was involved in a plaint at Puerto Plata Court. The judge let it be known that he would judge the case in her favour for US$2500. She told her lawyer & her lawyer reported it to the Fiscal. The Fiscal's office set up a sting operation which at the time was reported as taking place at Walter's Restaurant on Hermanas Mirabal but according to Court documents was at Barco's on the Malecon. Either way, the judge was caught red-handed: they had tapes of cellphone calls he exchanged with the Mexican lady, the marked US$2500 bills etc. He was fired from his job & prosecuted. The Court gave him a 6 month sentence of imprisonment. The Fiscal's office thought this was too lenient & appealed the case to the Supreme Court. Last September I believe it was, he was given 3 years imprisonment. He was released in Feb. 2008 i.e. last month when his lawyer, Angel Artiles Diaz, successfully produced a case for financial penalties complied with. The deceased Austrian is the husband of the Mexican lady who helped set up the sting on the corrupt judge.
Obviously the police do not think the ex-judge carried out the act of slaying (4 men & a woman are mentioned) but they seem to think he might be implicated as an 'intellectual author'.
Which brings me to the lessons for us all. The Mexican lady did the right thing in reporting extortion to her lawyer, her lawyer did the right thing in reporting to the Fiscal, the Fiscal did the right thing in prosecuting the ex-judge AND in appealing a lenient sentence & winning the case with the Supreme Court. But now the husband is dead & the lady herself in a serious condition. It goes against the grain for me to ask this but............would it have been better if she had never reported the extortion in the first place?
Given the same or similar circumstances, what would any of us do?
More info here:
El Nuevo Norte > Inicio
Supreme Court docs here - I could only open cached version so scroll down a bit
Dios, Patria y Libertad