Last year, the nation watched as Attorney General Jean Alain Rodriguez blasted accusations against Supreme Court of Justice judge Miriam German Brito, impeding her to continue in the Supreme Court where she was the presiding judge of the Penal Chamber. German had been critical of Rodríguez’s actions regarding prosecution of the Odebrecht US$92 million bribery scandal. Rodriguez accused German of being the owner of a “villa” and other wealth accumulations. [These later were proven to be completely false, and the villa to be a small house in San Jose de Ocoa town.]
After listening to the accusations, Germán’s last words to Rodriguez during the National Council of the Magistracy session were: “If this were a two-way street, we’d be talking about you.” Rodriguez is known to have a luxury villa in Casa de Campo and have accumulated major wealth after being named to key positions in past Medina administration.
On 16 August 2020, President Luis Abinader swore in the former Supreme Court judge as the Attorney General. He instructed the new chief prosecutor to act independently, adhering to the Constitution and the law. Abinader had promised to name a politically independent judge to the important position. He had also campaigned promising that this time around the corrupt would pay and impunity would not be the norm in his government.
President Luis Abinader also named former National District prosecutor, Yeni Berenice Reynoso, as Adjunct Prosecutor. Reynoso had been removed from her position as National District prosecutor in a restructuring of the Public Ministry by Rodríguez. Reynoso had championed other prosecutors who were also irregularly removed or relocated and has taken the case to the Superior Administrative Court (TSA).
Referring to the unexpected ending to the clash between Miriam German and Jean Alain Rodriguez, Foreign Minister Roberto Alvarez tweeted the famous line from the Ruben Blades Pedro Navaja song: “La vida te da sorpresas, sorpresas te da la vida.”[Life brings surprises, surprises bring life].
Ruben Blades song
Diario Libre
El Dia
N Digital
Hoy
Somos Pueblo
18 August 2020