Attorney General Jean Alain Rodríguez has requested four more months to present accusations against 14 remanded to justice in the Odebrecht bribes scandal. The 14 were in government positions or were contracted related to Odebrecht contract work in the country from 2001 to 2012. The government excluded officers related to Odebrecht projects after 2012. The Medina government began in 2012. The Attorney General excluded the Punta Catalina power plant, the largest contract work signed with the Brazilian company, indicating it would be investigated once it was concluded.
As reported in the media, the Attorney General and the director of the Office for Prosecution of Administrative Corruption, Laura Guerrero Pelletier, requested the extra time from Supreme Court of Justice instruction Judge Francisco Ortega Polanco. Rodriguez and Guerrero Pelletier argued that more time is needed to complete the investigations and inquiries abroad into the case. Judge Ortega had given the Attorney General through 8 February 2018 to complete the case.
All 14 accused were released from jail as they await the findings of the prosecutors so that the case could continue. The defendants are: Ángel Rondón, Víctor Díaz Rúa, Ruddy González, César Sánchez, Radhamés Segura, Andrés Bautista, Conrado Pittaluga, Roberto Rodríguez, Temístocles Montás, Máximo D’Oleo, Julio César Valentín, Alfredo Pacheco, Tommy Galán and Bernardo Antonio Castellanos.
The Dominican justice handling of the Odebrecht Latin American corruption scandal has been the exception in its marked lenience. In other countries, the judiciary has quickly and firmly acted against heads of government and high-ranking officers for corrupt acts.
In the televised Hilando Fino TV show, detective Angel Martinez criticized that the judiciary has not acted on evidence shared by the US prosecutors in May 2017 when prosecutor Jean Alain Rodriguez met with US Attorney General Jeff Sessions in Washington, D.C. President Danilo Medina, former president of the Senate Reinaldo Pared Perez, former president of the Chamber of Deputies Abel Martínez and former president of the Senate Cristina Lizardo have been left out of the Odebrecht investigation by the Dominican judiciary.
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30 January 2018
