Former Minister of Public Works and presidential candidate for the former ruling Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) Gonzalo Castillo marked the difference during the hearing for pre-trial measures on Tuesday, 21 March 2023 by not wearing a face mask and smiling confidently for the press to see. He became the social media trending topic for the day.
In 2019, Gonzalo Castillo was accused by investigative journalists Marino Zapete, Alicia Ortega and Edith Febles of irregularly managing billions in asphalt purchases before his becoming the presidential candidate for the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) into the 2020 general elections. Castillo would lose to incumbent President Luis Abinader, primarily with the vote of those who sought an end to impunity in the PLD governments.
Gonzalo Castillo is a businessman whose businesses boomed during the Danilo Medina administration.
In a new development, a news story in Noticias SIN says that Castillo has hired highly reputed lawyers Laura Acosta and Constitution expert Nassef Perdomo for his defense. They join lawyer Luis Rivas.
Castillo is accused in the new Operation Squid, described by prosecutor Yeni Berenice Reynoso was “unprecedented” in the level of state corruption. The case is related to previous corruption files handled by the Public Prosecution Office, such as the Odebrecht and Anti-Pulpo (Anti-Octopus) cases. Others accused in the Squid Operation are former Minister of Hacienda Donald Guerrero and former Administrative Minister of the Presidency Jose Ramon Peralta.
Noticias SIN reports that lawyers Santiago Rodríguez and Emery Rodríguez will assume the defense of José Ramón Peralta, former administrative minister of the Presidency, during Danilo Medina’s presidential term between 2012 and 2020.
Meanwhile, lawyer Eduard Núñez heads the defense bar of former Hacienda Minister Donald Guerrero, the main defendant in the Squid Operation, in which the state was allegedly defrauded of RD$19 billion.
The coercive measure hearing was postponed for this coming Sunday, 27 March 2023 by Judge Kenya Romero, coordinator of the Permanent Attention Court of the National District, so that the accused’s lawyers can read the file and prepare their defense.
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Noticias SIN
22 March 2023