With much attention being given to questionable releases granted to prisoners in the DR, it comes to light that former Attorney General Victor Cespedes Martinez ordered the release of his first cousin, Roberto Cespedes Martinez, who had been in jail for 16 months on a charge of homicide.
The freed man, who is related to both sides of the previous DA’s family, is himself a former official with the National Police. He had been held since January 2003, when Judge Doris Pujols sentenced him to jail for the murder of Abraham Lincoln Perdomo. The former attorney general told El Caribe reporters that he freed his cousin because he was “sick.” The incumbent District Attorney for the National District (Santo Domingo) has summoned his predecessor to appear before him today to answer questions regarding all the releases that were granted just days before the PRD government handed the nation over to the PLD. According to the information in El Caribe, Roberto Cespedes Martinez was examined by Dr Abel Marte Hernandez from the Department of Health, part of the Prisons Office. The doctor reported that the inmate was suffering from high blood pressure and occasional irregular heart beats. During his trial, witnesses said that Roberto Cespedes Martinez shot his victim “without saying a word.”