The Supreme Court will resume the hearings of the case of the Dominican state against six charged with taking bribes from Odebrecht. Odebrecht admitted in a US court to have paid US$92 million in bribes in the Dominican Republic in December 2016.
Supreme Court of Justice president Luis Henry Molina decided to reopen the case on Wednesday, 18 September 2019 at 3pm. Lawyers of accused former minister of Public Works Victor Diaz Rua had requested the presiding judge not participate because he had been the coordinator of the provincial campaign of the ruling Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) in San Cristóbal. One of the accused of taking bribes is PLD senator Tommy Galán of San Cristóbal. The Supreme Court of Justice is hearing the case because Dominican law establishes this privilege of jurisdiction for legislators.
The Supreme Court of Justice decided to continue this Wednesday the trial despite the challenge to the president of the court and four other judges (Frank Soto, Vanessa Acosta, Francisco Antonio Jerez and Napoleón Estévez Lavandier) by the lawyers of the former Minister of Public Works, Victor Diaz Rua.
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El Nuevo Diario
18 September 2019