Prosecutors investigating the murder of UASD law professor Yuniol Ramírez Ferreras continue to maintain the theory that the lawyer could have refused to sign a receipt for an alleged RD$1 million as an advance of RD$4 million to drop a corruption case in the judiciary against removed Omsa director Manuel Rivas was the motive for the murder.
They have presented evidence of a surveillance video of the gas station on Av. Rómulo Betancourt corner Caonabo that supposedly shows Ramírez receiving an envelope – supposedly the RD$1 million, from Omsa supplier Eddy Rafael Santana Zorrilla.
The lawyer was murdered on 11 October 2017, after being kidnapped from the UASD parking lot. His body was later found in Manoguayabo River, chained to two blocks.
El Nacional reported that the video shows that Ramírez met with Santana Zorrilla and the assistant of the director of the Omsa, Argenis Contreras at the station. Contreras is suspect of having fired the shot that killed the university professor.
But from day one, the family of Yuniol Ramírez has denied he was extorting the director of the Omsa. Ramón Ramírez, brother of the victim, says that the authorities want to give the case a political tint. He demands that the proof of the RD$1 million his brother would have received to desist from the case against the Omsa director.
A source close to the prosecutor investigation said: “What it looks like, is that the lack of trust of Argentis Contreras regarding Yuniol Ramírez, because he refused to sign the discharge that he had received the money. That receipt is in the papers that in the video one can see that Yuniol Ramirez takes in his hands inside the Chevrolet Tahoe SUV when he had met with Eddy Santana.” He explained that raised doubts in Argenis Contreras, who shared this with colonel Faustino Rosario Diaz, and he told him that Ramirez would demand much more money than what had been agreed upon and would never leave them alone.
Ramon Ramírez, brother of murdered lawyer Yuniol Ramírez, has produced a second video that he says is evidence against the prosecutors’ theory that in the fueling station his brother would have received extortion money. Ramirez speculates the video captures how a yellow manila envelope in which he understands carried cash was to pay for those that would murder his brother and says his brother did not receive the manila envelope as captured by the surveillance cameras. He says that the prosecutors are confusing a black Toyota Road Runner with the black Chevrolet Tahoe in which his brother arrived to the gas station.
Read more in Spanish:
El Nacional
El Dia
23 October 2017
