The judge who ordered the release of Pedro Brand councilor Ericson de los Santos accused of contract killings, returned US$20 million to the owners of the Atiemar apartment building who include convicted drug dealer Arturo del Tiempo, and the seized jet to the chief executives of the collapsed Banco Peravia, along with other controversial cases, is claiming that she did not receive bribes in this case. Awilda Reyes challenged the authenticity of a receipt presented by investigative TV journalist Nuria Piera, supposedly bearing her signature. To back up her claim, she demonstrated that the signature that appears on the receipt is very different from the one she uses.
Reyes has denied accusations by Chief Justice Mariano German who said at a press conference last week that the judge had confessed to receiving money in return for releasing the councilman, who is accused of ordering the murder of a driver as part of a dispute over control of a transport route.
In a statement to the press, Reyes agreed that her actions could be scrutinized but criticized the Supreme Court of Justice president for issuing statements in which “in a single act he became prosecutor, judge and part of the same case, which is a major affront to the principles of the separation of duties, impartiality, presumption of innocence, the right against self-incrimination, the right to defense, due process, the dignity of the person and the more fundamental rights contained in the due process of law. I have been tried and convicted without even a hearing.”
Reyes is one of five judges recently suspended without pay, along with former Judicial Branch Council member Francisco Arias Varela, who resigned before the investigation. The Attorney General has accused Arias Varela of heading a network of judges who took bribes from people accused of drug trafficking, asset laundering and other crimes in exchange for their release.
La exjueza Awilda Reyes niega la veracidad de alegado recibo
http://nuria.com.do/2015/11/27/nuria-piera-presenta-prueba-de-soborno-ex-juez-arias-valera-a-jueza-awilda-reyes/