Judge Amauri Martínez ordered that former Attorney General Jean Alain Rodríguez Sánchez be allowed to wait out his trial in house arrest. He was allowed to post a bail of RD$50 million. The ruling was issued at around 1am on 18 January 2023.
Rodriguez Sanchez is the main accused in the Medusa corruption case. He has already served the 18 month preventive custody term. In his remarks in court, he asked the judge of the Third Court of Instruction of the National District, Amauri Martinez, to allow him to prove his innocence in freedom. He denied he is a flight risk.
“Magistrate, you do not have a single piece of paper, nor will you ever have one, that says that I have threatened any witness,” he argued.
The former chief prosecutor also responded to the statements of the representative of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, Yeni Berenice Reynoso, who claims that there are three witnesses in the case under protection due to threats allegedly made by the former prosecutor.
The deputy attorney general and head of the General Directorate of Prosecution of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, Yeni Berenice Reynoso, had requested Rodríguez be kept in jail as she stated he represented the danger of flight persisted. At the hearing, Reynoso assured that Jean Alain Rodríguez tried to bribe witnesses with up to one million pesos so they would not testify.
Reynoso said despite the decision that allows Rodríguez Sánchez to post bail, the Public Prosecutor’s Office will not stop doing its work and that on the contrary, prosecutors will now put more emphasis on seeking a conviction against former Attorney General Rodriguez, accused of heading a corruption network known as Medusa during his four years as head of the Attorney General’s Office.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office has presented an indictment in a volume of 12,274 pages, accompanied by more than 3,500 pieces of evidence, including more than 400 witnesses. The indictment in the Medusa case was filed against 41 persons and 22 companies.
Read more in Spanish:
El Caribe
Hoy
Diario Libre
N Digital
18 January 2023