A feature in Listin Diario focuses on what DR1 had already pointed out. The Public Prosecutor’s Office is seeking agreements with defendants in exchange for their plea of guilty and cooperation with investigations. This has allowed the criminal investigation and prosecution body to achieve fast-tracked convictions and recover assets that are confiscated in favor of the state. The persons are then not tried in court.
The accused receive light punishments, in some cases they are excluded from the criminal process, the sentence is partially or totally suspended or the criminal action is extinguished, reports Listin Diario.
On several occasions, several courts have issued sentences with suspended sentences, following agreements between the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the defendants.
This type of sentences, which are provided for in the Penal Code, has been imposed by the courts to defendants for issuing bad checks, identity fraud, defamation and libel, physical and verbal aggression, illegal use of trademarks, falsification of documents, among other cases reported by the media.
The most recent sentence resulting from an agreements between the accused and the Public Prosecutor’s Office favored 11 people involved in the drug trafficking and money laundering network led by César Emilio Peralta (El Abusador), imprisoned in the United States.
This agreement, which was accepted on Friday, 30 September 2022 by the Second Court of Instruction of the National District, benefits Marisol Franco, the spouse of Cesar “El Abusador”, Melchor Alcántara Damirón and around 10 others implicated in the drug trafficking network.
The opportunity criterion is provided for in Article 34 of the Penal Code. Subject to certain conditions, the Penal Dode establishes that the Public Prosecutor’s Office may dispense with the public action with respect to one or several of the facts attributed to the accused or limit itself to one or some of the possible legal qualifications.
Listin Diario says the same fast-tracking of legal cases for corruption continues in more corruption cases under investigation. The Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for the Prosecution of Administrative Corruption (Pepca) has reportedly reached negotiations with a long list of those involved in corruption cases.
Listin Diario reports that the purpose of the deals is to obtain information with the declarations of some of the accused that would compromise the responsibility mainly of the ringleaders of the cases. The newspaper says this procedure has been used in the corruption schemes dismantled through the Anti-Octopus (Pulpo), Coral and Medusa operations.
Read more in Spanish:
Listin Diario
El Caribe
El Caribe
DR1 News
3 October 2022