Ramon Baez Figueroa and his cousin Marcos Baez Cocco, the former president and vice-president of the Banco Intercontinental (Baninter), were granted bail on Friday and are expected to be released to their families today. The Qualification Chamber of the National District courts set bail at RD$100 million. The pair is accused of pilfering RD$55 billion from Baninter. Their bail was supplied by a pool of insurance companies that received guarantees in real estate representing “50% more than the bail amount itself,” according to defence lawyer Marino Vinicio (Vincho) Castillo. The bail agreement, as mentioned in El Caribe, specifies that neither of the men is to leave the country. Nevertheless, once the bail sentence was read, the prosecutors announced they would appeal the sentence, based on the fact that Law 72-02 that covers money laundering, one of the charges pending against the accused, prohibits the privilege of bail. In her decision, Judge Miriam German Brito stated that Article 115, Paragraph III of Law 341; Article 30 of Law 72-02 and Article 66 of Law 2859 are contradictory to the Constitution. These articles require preventive detention in prison with no bail for the accused. The judge called the articles “arbitrary and irrational” because they violate the principle of presumed innocence.