The Orlando Martinez assassination case is again being heard in court. Judge Katia Miguelina Jiménez presides the hearings. Journalist Martinez, director of the Ahora newsweekly magazine, was murdered 17 March 1975. El Siglo newspaper says that yesterday’s hearing sounded more like a trial to the first 12-year regime (1966-1978) of former President Joaquin Balaguer, that followed the 1965 civil war and the 30-year Trujillo dictatorship. Topics covered were the violation of human rights, illicit enriching of the military, intolerance, anti-Communist propaganda in the barracks, selective repression, cold war, Los Palmeros, murder of leftist political leaders, Banda Colorá, assaults to banks, division of the left, the role of the CIA, the death squadrons, paramilitary groups, kidnapping of Colonel Crowley, etc. Balaguer was democratically voted back into power in 1986, and that government was seen as a vindication of the first transitional regime that was characterized by repression of civil rights. Asked to testify, TV producer and publishing house president, Jose Israel Cuello said that to find the culprits of what he called a "political crime" it is necessary to look to the higher up military sectors. He mentioned then Rear Admiral Manuel Logroño Contín, General Enrique Pérez y Pérez, General Salvador Lluberes Montás and Rear Admiral Ramón Emilio Jiménez. He said that none of the accused of the murder had the rank to make the decision of killing anyone. Retired General Salvador Lluberes Montas is the only top ranking military under arrest. Lluberes Montás is hospitalized in the Clinica Yunen in Santo Domingo. The judiciary has accused Mariano Duran Cabrera, Joaquin Antonio Pou Castro, Luis Emilio de la Rosa Beras and Alfredo Lluberes Ricart of the murder. Cuello’s theory is that then President Balaguer permitted the crime to get the high ranking military off his back. He explained the military thought they were the owners of the country, after eliminating Colonel Francisco Alberto Caamaño. Cuello explained that Balaguer opted to let the crime happen, and as a result there was a crisis in the top military ranks that brought about the resignation of the top leadership a month after the assassination of Orlando Martínez. Chief of the Police at the time, General José Cruz Brea, in court lashed out against Narciso Isa Conde, while maintaining his innocence. Narciso Isa Conde, as a friend of the Martínez family, has helped keep the case alive. Then General Enrique Perez y Perez explained that the blank page on the assassination that former President Balaguer left in his book "Memorias de un Cortesano", was to promote sales of the book. Pérez y Pérez said that it was Balaguer who tipped off Victor Gómez Bergés, who in turn warned Orlando Martínez that he could be murdered. Retired General Ramon Emilio Jiménez is scheduled to participate in the hearing today.