The Second Penal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice ordered the presence in court of four police, including a colonel, as witnesses in the case against Juan Sanchez Ramirez deputy Sadoky Duarte. Duarte is a deputy for the ruling Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM). He is accused of assaulting a policewoman while doing her duty. The police that need to appear in court are the members of the patrol involved in the case for which Duarte could be tried. These are Lieutenant Colonel Jose Francisco de la Cruz Mendez, First Lieutenant Francisco Antonio Lopez and corporals Wander Dotel and Disleidy Heredia Figueroa, who accused the legislator and later desisted.
Judges Francisco Ortega, Fran Soto and Francisco Jerez Mena announced the action following up on the legal recourse submitted on 28 December 2020 by corporal Disleidy Heredia Figueroa. At the time, the policewoman said that the deputy punched her in her face when she was part of the patrol that would have towed a suspicious vehicle abandoned by five persons who went on the run on Padre Fantino Street in Cotui.
Before the vehicle could have been towed, the legislator showed up at the site and in an aggressive way impeded the Police from taking the vehicle.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office suspect vehicle was used by drug traffickers.
The deputy has defended himself, saying that both the prosecutor and agents of the National Police have constructed a lie to sink him politically. He said he only wanted to stop the police from committing abuses against the youths who the police were chasing. The deputy provided several pieces of evidence for the trial.
In December 2020, the PRM had published a communiqué saying that due to accusations by the National Police against the deputy, the party orders that the case be sent to the National Prosecutor committee of the PRM. Paliza, president of the party, had tweeted he would request the expulsion of the deputy from the National Congress. Nevertheless, PRM deputies considered that the party should wait for the result of the investigation.
Duarte is just one of several ruling party legislators accused of breaking the law, as El Mitin explains in a report. Others are Gregorio Dominguez, Rosa Amalia Pilarte, Nelson Marmolejo Gil, Faustina Guerrero and Miguel Gutierrez. For the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), Hector Dario Feliz is accused of breaking the law.
The Supreme Court hears the cases against legislators because these have privileged jurisdiction.
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Diario Libre
El Mitin
30 August 2022