The judge overseeing the Orlando Mart?nez murder trial, Katia Miguelina Jim?nez Mart?nez, decided yesterday to adjourn the proceedings until February 10th. She made the decision in order to provide time for a doctor chosen by the Prosecutor to examine one of the defendants, retired General Salvador Lluberes Mont?s ("Chinino") and determine if there is merit to his petition to be excused from court appearances due to health reasons. The delay will also allow time for one of the witnesses called in the case, former President Joaqu?n Balaguer, to return to the country after his medical treatment in the U.S. It might also allow prosecutors a chance to clarify the status of their expedition request to the U.S. to return the alleged trigger man, ex-Air Force sergeant Mariano Dur?n. Dur?n is under arrest in New York pending a U.S. court’s decision on the DR’s extradition request. Judge Jim?nez Mart?nez had originally postponed proceedings last December until yesterday in the hopes that Dur?n would be processed and extradited in the interim in order to attend the trial. However, it was revealed on Wednesday that Dominican authorities committed a major procedural error which has slowed the processing of the extradition request: they did not submit a copy of the request in English, as U.S. law requires.The trial concerns the 1975 murder of journalist Orlando Mart?nez Howley. Mart?nez had been critical of the government of then-President Balaguer, but it is believed that he may have been assassinated because he was about to uncover in his column an economic scandal involving the State Sugar Council (CEA). In his famous biography, "Memories of a Courtesan," Dr. Balaguer left a bank page (No. 295) about the case that he said would be filled in after his death, hinting that he knows critical secrets about the murder or its original police investigation. Five former military men are standing trial for the murder: in addition to Chinino, retired generals Joaqu?n Antonio Pou Castro and Jos? Isidoro Mart?nez, plus former military men Rafael Alfredo Lluberes Ricart and Luis Emilio de la Rosa. Dr. Balaguer has been called as a witness, but had repeatedly declined to attend court proceedings, pleading ill health.
