Russell some months ago the government said quite clearly that the law that was in place in France years ago that a person is guilty until proved innocent was definitely not the law in the DR ...nor is it now in France. What may have led you to think that way is that many accused people are given a preventative sentence of 3 months to a year so that the fiscal can produce a case against the accused , and that suggests that the person is guilty and of course it is very difficult to prepare a defence when you are locked up . let me give you an example some six years or more ago. My house was robbed and the police said that they knew the two men who robbed the house but they could not produce one . So the man they had, who was quite innocent as it turned out , was given a preventative sentence of 3 months that went to over a year. meanwhile I had personally found out that the real the thief was from my gym and had done the robbery with the help of two policemen.When I offered the police a reward for the return of my property I had everything in 48 hours ..The poor innocent man stayed in prison.
Let me give you another example .. There was a prostitute originally from Santiago and then from San Pedro and then from la Romana who accused young men in each of those cities of having sex with her underaged daughter, also a prostitute .When the young men,quite innocent, would not pay the money to the woman she reported them to the police and they were all given preventative sentences.the police and the fiscal knew the pattern of perjury by the mother but were waiting to receive their cut from the eventual payment of the blackmail money . There was absolutely no case against any of the three boys . I have other examples . For poor people who do not have nearly enough money to avoid the bail provisions by leaving the country, it is cruel, unfair and sinful to not have these people on bail. Even with delinquents with pistols , a case has to be presented and the evidence tested...mere suspicion is not enough..except in this country.