Former judge Juan Miguel Castillo Pantaleon, who achieved a favorable reputation for being the first judge to reopen and prepare the dossier of the Orlando Martinez case in 1997 (after it languished for 22 years), criticized the judgment by Judge Katia Jimenez in an interview in the Listín Diario newspaper. He criticized that the judge did not discriminate among the accused four when issuing her judgment. He alerted the judgment establishes a dangerous precedent: that collaborating with the authorities will be penalized. District Attorney Francisco Dominguez had requested a three year sentence in the case of Luis Emilio de la Rosa Brea for his help in clarifying the case. His testimony help move the trial ahead. De la Rosa was 17 years old at the time, and was not one of the two who were said to have fired the shots at Orlando Martinez. Nevertheless, he was sentenced to the maximum 30 years, as the other three. Former judge Castillo feels that the judge should have established the degree of responsibility in her judgement. "The balance left by a judgment such as this one, in no way fair, reflects judicial weakness; a rush to produce results at any cost without stopping to measure the responsibility of each of the accused. That took luster away from the process, as there was a lack of an awareness of the historic role of the trial," he points out. Luis de la Rosa has appealed the sentence. Castillo also said that the judgment confirmed the present impunity by exempting others that are implicated and by discarding the possibility of opening a new phase against the possible participants in the crime. When preparing the case, Castillo tried on two occasions to get former President Joaquín Balaguer to appear before justice, to no results. Castillo says: "The case shows the existence of weaknesses in judiciary, maybe because of the rush in producing results as the result of the political moment and the transition between governments. "Impunity is confirmed, also, because the condemned had already been arrested, with which citizens receive a satisfaction, but at the same time a metamessage is sent: impunity continues because some of those that possibly were involved, such as the real intellectual authors, were left out of the process. "The fact that we are in the midst of change of government, with all that that implies, suggests there was a confluence of wills to end the case before the change of administration. While the government that ends wanted to accumulate the largest amount of achievements, the government that is about to start does not want to have to fufill all its electoral promises, including those made to political circles," he said. "There are aspects of the case, such as the cover up. All those elements initially pointed out in the case development were subject to further investigations, but this did not result. Nevertheless, he is satisfied with the result, even if justice was only met half way. "The trial was considered a paradigm passed to a historic period. The judgment leaves an exemple and the next time a general asks a major or subalterno to beat or kill someone, he will see himself reflected in the condemned."
