Supreme Court judge Victor Jose Castellanos has ordered the Justice Department to reopen the investigation into alleged acts of corruption by Senator Felix Bautista. Prior to his post as senator, Felix Bautista served as head of the Presidency Supervisory Office of Public Works (OSOIE), handling billions for remodeling and building of public works. Castellanos, who acted as a Special Judge of Instruction, based his decision on article 30 of the Penal Process Code. The magistrate revoked decree No. 03093, in which the investigation process against Bautista was ordered to be filed away, based on an objection raised by the Dominican Alliance against Corruption (Adocco), which had arraigned the former director of the Presidency Office of Supervisory Office for Public Works for alleged acts of corruption. The case against him documents overvaluations of public works, among other alleged irregularities.
Judge Castellanos rejected the request to declare the objection against the provisional filing of the case, suggested by Bautista’s defense lawyers Abel Rodriguez Orbe, Juan Antonio Delgado, Ramon Emilio Nunez and Gina Almonte Bautista. Shortly before the end of the second consecutive Leonel Fernandez term, the administrative anti-corruption office had ordered the case open against the former OISOE director irrevocably closed.
In reaction to the case, Dominguez Brito said that the investigations into the alleged cases of corruption and illicit enrichment involving Bautista should continue to the end. He also maintains his firm position in the fight against impunity without any distinctions. “The reopening of the case of Senator Felix Bautista favors the fight against impunity and we have said on many occasions that we cannot allow the Justice System to become a protector of corruption.”