Defending himself from what he termed "a campaign in the press directed against [me]," the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (SCJ) has invited the country’s leading accounting firms to conduct an audit of the SCJ’s books for the period that the court has been under his direction. Jorge Subero Isa, who has headed the nation’s highest tribunal for the past three years, did not identify the parties behind the campaign, but denied that either President-elect Hipolito Mejia or Vice-President-elect Milagros Ortiz Bosch or anyone else from the PRD Party was involved.The question of PRD involvement in an attempt to discredit Subero Isa arose in the aftermath of an accusation by prominent attorney and perennial gadfly, Marino Vinicio Castillo. In a statement last week, he charged that the Supreme Court was a "tempest" of political intrigue due to attempts at manipulation of the court by interests allied with former president Salvador Jorge Blanco. The 1991 trial of Jorge Blanco resulted in his being found guilty of corruption while in office, and is under judicial appeal.The Chief Justice also tried to lay to rest the reports of conflict between himself and Justice Luciano Pichardo. Last week, a letter was published in which Pichardo claims that Subero Isa makes the selection of judges in lower courts ""n his study" without consulting the the SCJ judges, as required by law. In a press conference called in the presence of Subero Isa after the report was published, Pichardo stated that his differences with Subero Isa had been resolved weeks ago.
