Once again the accusations against government officials allegedly involved in the Brazilian Odebrecht construction company scandal are again being called into question based on the selectivity of the charges pressed by the Attorney General prosecutors. The team defending the former head of the National Water Institute (INDRHI) and the former Minister of Public Works Victor Diaz Rua told the court that the allegations are “selective, arbitrary and slanted” during the latest session late last week. The lawyers for the accused, Miguel Valerio and Ramon Emilio Núñez, told the court that when Díaz Rúa was minister of Public Works, the government awarded Odebrecht 12 of the 17 contracts covered in the scandal. However, the lawyers asked the court, why was their defendant is only being accused of corruption in seven of these 12 projects?
Nuñez noted that this is a case of state involvement, since in March 2005, the former minister traveled to Brazil together with Danilo Medina, who at the time was Technical Secretary for the Presidency. Back then, the mission traveled to Brazil to find ways to ease the restriction of funds in order to expand the Northwest Aqueduct and to expand Brazilian contracts.
Díaz Rúa asked the court, perhaps factiously, to note that mentioning Danilo Medina is not necessarily to tie him to the crimes committed in this case, but rather a sign that there could not have been any bribes exchanging hands. Díaz Rúa said that “everybody knows of the honesty of the President of the Republic.”
As one of several examples, the defense cited the case of the Samaná aqueduct, which has so far used up, according to the Diario Libre, the staggering sum of US$286 million (about RD$14.4 billion at today’s rates). They told the court that Díaz Rúa was only responsible for the money spent in Samana itself, which amounted to US$61 million, and others have handled the rest. They noted that it was Mariano Germán, the brother of the current Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, who added the Hermanas Mirabal aqueduct to the project.
His lawyers argued that much of which their defendant is being accused of is a regular practice under incumbent public works minister Gonzalo Castillo.
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Diario Libre
Hoy
25 February 2019