The Criminal Chamber of the Court of Appeals sentenced former Deputy Minister of Youth Odalis Junior Ledesma Hernández Ledesma to serve 15 years in Najayo Jail (CCR Najayo) for the rape of a Canadian citizen, Joanna Linda Kocsis on 4 April 2017. Ledesma was ordered to pay RD$5 million in indemnity to the victim.
Kocsis had come to carry out research for her doctoral thesis. Ledesma would have assisted with the needed data. As reported, he showed her an apartment to rent, where the rape occurred.
All throughout the procedures, Ledesma argued Kocsis could not prove her case. In her favor, was that she had consulted with the Canadian Embassy that advised her to immediately leave the country and undergo rape certification procedures in Canada.
The Dominican investigators later asked the Canadian authorities to provide the rape kit taken from the victim and the formal statement she gave to the Niagara Police in Canada.
Likewise, the prosecutor in the case, Rosa Alba García Vásquez worked insistently in her favor. With the change of the head at the Attorney General Office, prosecutor García Vásquez was promoted to the Anti-Corruption Prosecution Division (Pepca). Kocsis was represented by lawyers Laura Acosta and Jennifer Gómez.
Back in 2018, investigative journalist Nuria Piera aired two programs giving details about the case, including one where the victim told her story.
The case was first heard in a privileged jurisdiction, as Ledesma was a senior government official. He would later be fired, and the case was sent to be heard in an ordinary jurisdiction.
Ledesma Hernandez was prosecuted for violating articles 309-1, 309-2, 309-3-B and H, 310, 331 of the Penal Code, which criminalizes sexual assault committed with violence, constraint, threat, surprise or deception.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office initiated the process in June 2017, when Joanna Linda Kocsis sent the Dominican ambassador to Canada a letter in which she recounted that she had been the victim of an alleged sexual violation and pointed to Ledesma Hernández as the alleged perpetrator.
The letter was forwarded from the Ministry of Foreign Relations (Mirex) to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which then proceeded to request from the Migration Agency, a certification of the entries and exits of the Canadian citizen.
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El Dia
N Digital
Nuria Piera 18 August 2018
Nuria Piera 9 September 2018
Nuria Piera 18 September 2018
DR1 News
CBC
7 May 2021