Former National District attorney Guillermo Moreno writes in an op-ed contribution to Diario Libre that the frontal attack by Attorney General Jean Alain Rodríguez to Supreme Court of Justice judge Miriam Germán during her performance assessment occurred because the government does not want her to continue in the Supreme Court of Justice.
In the opinion piece, Moreno, who is the president of the AlPais political party, says that the attorney general should have previously investigated the allegations and prosecuted these if there was sufficient evidence to do so. Moreno said he had to do so in the right scenarios, respecting the due process.
“What the Attorney General cannot do is use covert investigations, carried out without any judicial guidelines, and present these with a surprise element and treachery during the National Council of Magistracy hearing,” said Moreno.
He stressed that the actions violated the CNM regulations that ban the use of anonymous communications that had not been decided upon previously by the National Council of the Magistracy. The notes had to have been notified with at least 24 hours before they were presented during the televised public assessment hearing.
Moreno said the actions seek to have a chilling effect on judges in general. “You have to think what judge, from now on, will speak freely on the phone, will dare to socialize with friends outside their family circle. What judge will risk deciding against or producing a dissident vote in cases that affect the interests of the ruling party?” Moreno points out.
He recalls that the inclusion of the attorney general in the composition of the National Council of the Magistracy was objected to. “Now it is clear that the participation of the attorney general gives the later intimidating powers over the judges,” he stated.
Moreno concludes the questioning of Miriam Germán by the Attorney General seeks to remove her as a Supreme Court of Justice judge. He writes that the plot was carried out with the knowledge and approval of the President of the Republic with the complicity of Supreme Court of Justice president Mariano Germán, the president of the Senate Reinaldo Pared and the president of the Chamber Camacho, who to date have remained mute on the matter, he writes.
He concludes that the assault on judge Miriam Germán is not a simple retaliation by the Attorney General of the Republic motivated by his resentment because she unmasked the Odebrecht case filed by the Attorney General. “That is the superficial part. The matter goes deeper: Danilo Medina and his faction seek to have, in addition to “their” Congress, “their” justice,” he writes.
Moreno said the Monday, 4 March 2019 hearing makes evident that Dominican justice is every day less independent, that the Judicial Branch has been taken over from within by the PLD leaders.
Moreno calls to mobilize wills and act with determination to put a stop to the decline in the judiciary. He called for the two members of the CNM that represent opposition parties to remove themselves from the assessments of the judges until there is not a rectification and express public retraction regarding the violations of the ruling during the questioning of Miriam Germán by the Attorney General.
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Diario Libre
12 March 2019