The most prominent figures of the PLD Party – including the former Vice President, Jaime David Fernandez, the defeated PLD presidential candidate, Danilo Medina, and several cabinet members from the previous government – flocked to the residence of Alexandrina German yesterday in an unprecedented show of ?solidarity? with their embattled colleague. It had been rumored that the special anti-corruption prosecutor had issued a summons ordering the former top-ranked assistant to President Leonel Fernandez to appear in his office for questioning. In a pre-emptive strategy, PLD Senators marched out of the Senate chamber en masse, and PLD members of the Chamber of Deputies did the same. The party?s representatives on the Santo Domingo City Council followed suit, and all of them, together with other ex-functionaries of Fernandez government and PLD Party executives crowded into the home of German, declaring their willingness to follow her to jail, if necessary. German has repeatedly refused to appear before anti-corruption prosecutor Jesus Feliz Jimenez, asserting his ?lack of jurisdiction? and her own ?human dignity.? Listin Diario quotes German as resolutely saying ?Only by force will they get me to go.? However, by 3:00 p.m., the anxiously awaited summons with soldiers ready to enforce it, had not arrived. By 4:00, when it became apparent that nothing exciting was likely to happen, the PLD throng inside the German home began to thin out. At the Justice Department, Feliz Jimenez that no summons had been issued, and that he would not make any further attempts to call German for questioning. ?You will see what?s going to happen, ? he told reporters. Later, surrounded by reporters on the steps of the Justice Ministry, Attorney General Virgilio Bello Rosa said that he had met with two former Attorney Generals who had served in the Fernandez administration – Cesar Pina Torribio and Mariano German Mejia (who is Alexandrina German?s brother) in their capacity as lawyers for the reluctant witness. ?This matter is in my hands now,? said Bello Rosa. The furor over German concerns the fact that her daughter, and the children of some other high ranking former government officials were included among the recipients of scholarships provided by the University of Utah, in a program managed by German.
