The Public Prosecutor’s Office appealed the sentence that discharges those accused of receiving US$3.5 million in bribes from Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica (Embraer) in the sale to the Air Force of eight Super Tucano airplanes.
The appeal was deposited at the clerk’s office of the Third Collegiate Court of the National District, by the head of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for the Prosecution of Administrative Corruption (Pepca), Wilson Camacho and the litigation coordinator Mirna Ortiz.
Now, the file must be forwarded to the president of the Criminal Chambers of the National District, Julio César Canó Alfau, who will need to empower one of the three criminal chambers of the Court, which must ratify the decision or, on the contrary, order the celebration of a new trial.
Among the arguments taken by the Public Prosecutor’s Office to appeal the sentence of the court are that the declarations made by the judges Arlín Ventura Jiménez (president), Leticia Martínez Noboa and Milagros Mercedes Ramírez Cabrera, there are contradictions of arguments that the Public Prosecutor’s Office says it does not share.
The court declared not guilty retired major general Pedro Rafael Peña Antonio, former minister of Defense; colonel Carlos Piccini Núñez, former director of Special Projects of the Dominican Air Force (FAD), and businessman Daniel Aquino Hernández, as well as the firms 4D Business Group and Magycor.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office had asked the court to impose 10 years imprisonment for Peña Antonio, Piccini Núñez and Aquino Hernández, for the commission of the crimes of which they were accused. It also requested the payment of a fine of US$7 million.
It also requested the payment of a fine of 100 minimum wages against each of the companies.
Pepca accused the group of violating several articles of the Dominican Criminal Code, Law 448-06, on Bribery in Commerce and Investment, and the former Money Laundering Law 72-02.
The process was initiated in 2016 and the indictment was subsequently filed in 2017.
The Embraer company, which admitted to the delivery of bribes, was sentenced in 2018 to the payment of US$7 million to the Dominican state.
The investigations in this case included the tracing of money transfers in the country and abroad, analysis and verification of assets, examination of bank account movements, as well as the location and investigation of the origin of assets.
Read more in Spanish:
Listin Diario
29 September 2022