On Monday, 1 October 2018, Supreme Court judge, Francisco Ortega Polanco, reconvened the trial against the seven accused in the Odebrecht bribery case. The judge reiterated his decision to reject three expert witnesses to analyze the evidence submitted by the public prosecution service. At the last hearing on 22 August, Judge Ortega Polanco declared these witnesses to be inadmissible including one who would have been able to translate the documents from Portuguese to Spanish. Ortega Polanco decided not to allow Odebrecht executives to be witnesses as well as President Dãnilo Medina and the Attorney General, Jean Alain Rodríguez.
This request had been made by Jesús Vásquez, who asks that Odebrecht president Marcelo Bahia Odebrecht, ex manager Marco Vasconcelos Cruz, and Luis Eduardo Da Roicha Soares be called as witnesses having had admitted to the Brazilian authorities that they had paid bribes to obtain contracts for state works. He also asked that other called as witnesses should be ex-presidents Hipólito Mejía and Leonel Fernández, who were in office when 17 contracts were awarded to Odebrecht.
In another development, defense lawyers for Angel Rondón, Victor Díaz Rua, Andres Bautista García, Juan Roberto Rodríguez, Conrado Pittaluga Arzeno and Jesús Vásquez requested that their clients’ cases be separate from the case against senator Tommy Galán. They argue their case should be heard by ordinary justice and not by the Supreme Court of Justice, as is required in the case of the senator.
The hearings will be resumed at 2pm by judge Francisco Ortega.
Read more in Spanish:
El Dia
Listin Diario
2 October 2018
