The family of murdered UASD law professor Yuniol Ramirez complained that the Santo Domingo prosecutors have left out of the case businessman Eddy Rafael Santana Zorrilla and his wife. Ramón Ramírez, brother of the late Yuniol Ramirez, said that Manuel Rivas had asked the businessman to pay RD$1 million to Argenis Contreras González, to commit the murder, allegedly because he was being extorted. Yuniol Ramirez was carrying an anti-corruption case against the director of the Omsa. Contreras was accused by arrested Antonio Mercado Blanco as the person who fired the shot that killed Ramirez after both kidnapped the law professor at the state university UASD. Contreras is said to have left the country, and is a fugitive of justice.
Earlier in 2013, Diario Libre had published a comprehensive story on allegations of corruption at the Omsa that was ignored by the state prosecutors at the time.
Ramon Ramirez complained that the state prosecutors refer to Santana Zorrillo as a witness in the case, and excluded his wife or girlfriend, the person who delivered the RD$1 million. Ramirez said that his brother did not accept the RD$1 million and that was the reason for the murder.
Ramón Ramírez says the prosecutors also plan to leave Faustino Rosario Diaz, a Police colonel employed in the financial department at OMSA, out of the case.
Ramirez said that when Police investigators opened the vehicle of his brother that was parked in the UASD they found four mobile phones, including one with which he communicated with Rivas, but in the file they only reveal they found three of those phones. Ramirez said that his brother’s girlfriend said that Yuniol had a mobile phone that was long and white, that he used to communicate with Rivas. Ramirez said that the prosecutors are removing evidence.
Ramirez family lawyer Irvin Cruz says the prosecutor Olga Dina Llaverias is staging a show to exclude part of those that have been accused. He said Rivas is still in the case because the evidence of the corruption scandal at Omsa is too strong. Manuel Rivas Medina is a member of the Central Committee of the ruling PLD party and was very active in securing the re-election of President Danilo Medina in 2016.
“Now they reached an agreement with businessman Santana Zorrilla, but the agreement was not made by the prosecutors, rather by the government, because he was a financier of political campaigns,” said Ramirez who together with lawyer Cruz spoke on the La Super 7 en la Mañana talk show (107.7FM).
Furthermore, El Dia reported that prosecutor investigations have revealed that employees of Omsa and businessman Eddy Rafael Santana Zorrilla met on seven occasions in October 2017 prior to the murder. The meetings were coordinated by Santana, an Omsa supplier, reportedly at the request of the cancelled director of Omsa, Manuel Rivas Medina, to negotiate with the deceased so that he desist of a case filed with the Superior Administrative Court (TSA) for corruption at Omsa.
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Diario Libre
Diario Libre
El Dia
18 October 2017
