Judge Francisco Ortega Polanco has put on hold the start of the Odebrecht corruption case to decide on a new request that he not lead the proceedings, as argued by defense lawyers of accused former president of the Senate Andres Bautista Garcia. The case had been scheduled to resume on Friday, 6 July 2018. Judge Ortega said he would await the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice on whether he should continue hearing the case.
An op-ed article in Diario Libre on Monday, 9 July written by former National District prosecutor, politician Guillermo Moreno says that the statement by the director of the anti-corruption (Pepca) unit of the government and by the Attorney General in favor of Ortega is because the government seeks to “avoid that the file fall in hands of a judge who responds to the political faction within the ruling PLD party lead by former President Leonel Fernández.
Moreno explains that the Attorney General Office knows the case has been built in a partial way. Moreno highlights that the Attorney General centered the accusation in government officers and legislators of the period 2001-2004 (Hipólito Mejía) and 2004-2012 (Leonel Fernandez) excluding the works that were built during the government of incumbent Danilo Medina. He also mentions that important government officers and legislators known to be partial to Medina were also excluded from the case.
Moreno said the case is but another evidence of the pull between the two leaders of the ruling party, where part of the judges are aligned with President Medina and the others with former President Fernández. But he says there is a majority that is not aligned with either. He explains the fact of the matter is that the absence of independent justice, given that the judges aligned with the ruling PLD control the decision and control systems of the Justice Branch.
Read more in Spanish:
Diario Libre
Diario Libre
9 July 2018
