The Attorney General, Francisco Dominguez Brito, has ordered that all vehicles that have been illegally confiscated should be returned to their owners and at the same time he instructed all prosecutors that they should only confiscate vehicles when they are needed as proof of a crime or are linked to a criminal case.
According to a press release, he said that often vehicles were confiscated when they had nothing to do with the crime and there were a large number being kept by the District Attorneys’ offices who should begin to start the process to hand them back. Prosecutor General Francisco Dominguez Brito said yesterday, Monday 15 October, that his office would not investigate government officials identified by the Dominican Alliance Against Corruption (Adocco) for their responsibility in the government’s budget hole of RD$189 billion. On 10 October, the civil society organization submitted a request to the Attorney General office for the current Minister of Economy Juan Temistocles Montas and former ministers of Treasury (Hacienda) Vicente Bengoa and Daniel Toribio to be investigated, as well as former National Budget director Luis Hernandez. Dominguez Brito said that the claim had no legal basis and that one could not mix corruption with politics. “That is not of penal nature,” he said, as reported in El Caribe.
Dominguez Brito justified the decision on the grounds that the Public Ministry does not have the capacity to manage so many assets.
www.elcaribe.com.do/2012/10/15/ordena-devolver-vehiculos-incautados-irregularmente