Many people have wondered why the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) has not finished with the corruption case of the Odebrecht Construction Company in the Dominican Republic. There are persons in prison, reputations smeared and public questioning of every branch of government. The US$92 million involved in the case has been called “just the tip of the iceberg” by some civic entities. On 17 December 2019, the court announced that on Tuesday, 28 January 2020, it would read the decision on the case. In a rare show of dissention, five judges noted their disagreement with the decision and announced that they would express the reasons for their dissent.
What happened back in December was that the full SCJ announced that they were withdrawing from the case and sending the files to two different areas for trial. One part will deal with the case of Senator Tommy Galan Grullon, and this will be dealt with in the Penal Chamber of the SJC. A Collegiate Tribunal of the National District will deal with the case against Angel Rondón, Víctor Díaz Rua, Andres Bautista, Juan Rovert Rodríguez and Conrado Pittaluga. The court’s decision was apparently based on the different ranks of the accused, with Galan Grullón being a senator and the others being government bureaucrats.
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Diario Libre
Diario Libre
22 January 2020