The Supreme Court of Justice has postponed until 4 March the hearings on an appeal that seeks to annul the extinguishment of the penal action against the former director of the Dominican Agrarian Institute (IAD), Jaime Rodriguez Guzman and others accused of expropriating thousands of acres of lands belonging to the state near Bahia de las Aguilas. Meanwhile, Senator Wilton Guerrero described the government decision to grant power to negotiate with holders of fraudulent titles to these lands in the area, as “unsuitable.”
Environmentalist Luis Carvajal announced that they are collecting documents in order to be able to initiate proceedings to annul the agreement signed by the government with holders of fraudulent land titles in Bahia de las Aguilas. Carvajal’s group will begin legal action to annul the agreement in the Constitutional Court as well as in the Supreme Administrative Court. Supreme Court judges Miriam German Brito, presiding; Frank Soto Sanchez, Alejandro Moscoso Segarra and Juan Hirohito Reyes, postponed the hearing of the process in order to give the defense for Jaime Rodriguez Guzman, his brother Rafael Rodriguez Guzman and his wife Reyna Margarita Martinez time to learn the details of the appeal filed by the District Attorney.
District Attorney for the National District Yeni Berenice Reynoso said that she thought that there were no legal reasons for a motion to dismiss because of a time limit, since the rules are clearly defined and are not applicable in the case in question, so she is requesting the annulment of the dismissal and is sending the case to one of the courts of First Instance of the National District so that it should proceed to a trial on charges against the defendants. Wilton Guerrero, who went to the SCJ hearing, suggested, before it started, that society should firmly oppose the agreement made by the government because usurpers and mafia-like behavior should not be allowed to be rewarded.