The new Supreme Court of Justice judges and the president of the higher court could be known today, 4 April 2019 in the late afternoon. The National Council of the Magistracy has scheduled the announcement of two to 12 judges to replace the judges. Of 12 possible replacements, nine are mandatorily from career judges, with three open to lawyers. A new president of the Supreme Court of Justice will also be announced after
The CNM is now convened for Thursday, 4 April at 3pm. The hearing will be streamed live.
The CNM evaluated the 10 aspiring members of the Supreme Court and 79 candidates. Supreme Court judges that aspire to continue in their posts are: Manuel Herrera Carbuccia, Miriam Germán Brito, Esther Agelán Casasnovas, Francisco Jerez Mena, Jose Alberto Cruceta, Robert Placencia, Hirohito Reyes, Fran Soto and Alejandro Moscoso Segarra. In addition to resigning Supreme Court of Justice Mariano Germán, judge Edgar Hernández had announced he would not aspire to continue in the position.
There is also widespread interest to see whether highly reputed Supreme Court of Justice judge Miriam Germán Brito would be confirmed after she was victimized by a CNM member, Attorney General Jean Alain Rodríguez who in doing so violated assessment hearing rulings. On the job, Germán in a dissident opinion had blatantly focused on the weak corruption cases prepared by the prosecution under Jean Alain Rodríguez. The judge has also speculated the same happening with the Odebrecht US$92 million bribes case.
Now there is speculation that lawyer Luis Henry Molina, who at present is director of the Dominican Institute of Telecommunications (Indotel), is the government’s choice to preside the Supreme Court of Justice. Molina has openly campaigned for President Medina but has said he would resign his leadership role in the PLD if he is appointed to the higher court.
Investigative journalist and political analyst Altagracia Salazar speculates that the Medina administration has reached an agreement with the business sector to trade changes in the labor rulings for support to the government’s choice of judges. Salazar says this will be “Medina’s justice,” the way the previous court was “Leonel Fernández’s justice.” Salazar has pointed out how judges Fran Soto, Alejandro Moscoso Segarra and Hirohito Reyes ensured that corruption cases in the Fernández government were filed before being tried.
The way the National Council of Magistracy is set up, President Danilo Medina has a dominant role in the choice of the judges. The jurors are: President Danilo Medina, president of the Supreme Court of Justice; Mariano Germán; president of the Senate and secretary general of the ruling PLD party, Reynaldo Pared Perez; president of the Chamber of Deputies Radhamés Camacho (PLD-Pedernales) Supreme Court of Justice judge Fran Soto; Attorney General Jean Alain Rodríguez; senator José Ignacio Paliza (PRM-Puerto Plata), deputy Josefa Castillo (PRM-Province of Santo Domingo).
Read more in Spanish:
El Dia
Diario Libre
Altagracia Salazar – Sin Maquillaje
4 April 2019