Judge Danilo Amador Quevedo of the Third Instruction Court of the National District will decide today, 19 April 2017, to approve or not the agreement Odebrecht has signed with the Attorney General office regarding bribes made by the company to secure contract work in the Dominican Republic. The arguments used by the Attorney General Jean Alain Rodríguez that sustain the agreement have been much debated. A copy of the agreement has not been made public.
Lawyer Ramón Emilio Concepción said on Tuesday, 18 April 2017, that Art. 34 of the Penal Procedures Code clearly does not allow the Attorney General’s Office to use the “principle of opportunity” to seek the approval of a Dominican court of the agreement Odebrecht has signed with the Attorney General regarding the corruption case in the Dominican Republic. Odebrecht has admitted to paying US$92 million in bribes to Dominican government officers. Concepción says that the Penal Code establishes penalties of three to 10 years in cases of bribery and the opportunity clause only applies to cases where the penalties need to be of less than three years.
Concepción also says the Code establishes that when the public interest is affected, the “criteria of opportunity” does not apply, which is another reason why he claims the Odebrecht corruption case does not qualify for the procedure invoked by the Attorney General Office.
Concepción was referring to the re-introduction to the Third Instruction Court of the National District of the agreement with Odebrecht that the Attorney General seeks to be approved by the Dominican judiciary. The Attorney General has promoted the judicial approval of the agreement arguing that it will facilitate the naming of the government officers that received bribes between 2001 and 2014 and will reimburse the Dominican government with a sum of US$184 million over an eight-year period.
The agreement had been first rejected when it was sent for approval to Judge José Alejandro Vargas on grounds that it should be publicly heard in an open hearing given that Odebrecht has already admitted to having incurred in bribery.
Concepción says that a judge who approves this type of agreement, without allowing due for process or not naming individuals involved, is simply obstructing justice and could be subject to disciplinary action,” warned the lawyer during a telephone interview for the Super 7 morning radio talk show (107.7 FM).
He observed that Odebrecht has also admitted in Brazil that it moved the department dealing with the bribes to the Dominican Republic at the suggestion of Joao Santana, the Danilo Medina re-election campaign strategist. It is suggested that by Joao Santana working from the Presidential Palace, there were would be less scrutiny by authorities into the illicit activities.
In a late development from Brazil, the wife of Santana, Monica Moura declared that Odebrecht funds were used to finance the electoral campaigns of Dilma Rousseff and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brazil, and those abroad of Panama, Angola, Venezuela. But she denied the funds were used to finance political campaigns in Argentina and the Dominican Republic.
When asked about Brazilian news story that Odebrecht operated from Santo Domingo an office from where international bribes were managed, Minister of the Presidency José Ramón Peralta has said the government was not aware of this.
Minister of the Presidency José Ramón Peralta continues to maintain the investigations will clear the Medina government of any role in accepting or facilitating the bribes that Odebrecht has admitted to paying out.
“We are confident and composed in terms of our actions during the 2012 electoral campaign and that the truth will come out. Our collective conscience is clear, and tomorrow, in a week, or whenever, the truth based on facts will come forth,” he told journalists covering the Presidential Palace beat.
He said the government will also be exonerated by the investigation into alleged wrong-doings in the construction of the Punta Catalina coal-fired generation plant by a consortium led by Odebrecht.
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19 April 2017
