Juan Miguel Castillo Pantaleon, a lawyer and former judge, said that the new penal code as established by Law 76-02 will make it very difficult to sentence jail terms for members of the previous government suspected of corruption. He told Hoy newspaper that, according to the new code, if prosecutors do not present a formal accusation in three months’ time, the criminal case will fall through and be forcefully abandoned by the judiciary. Castillo Pantaleon said that, due to its design, the new code personalizes the process so that the prosecutor who begins the case must also end it. He criticized what he appraised to be a system that is slanted in favor of the accused, instead of the victim, and said there is no way prosecutors can be present in all the different courts where hearings will be held. The new three-month limit on court cases will allow those who otherwise would be proclaimed guilty to obtain their freedom without any kind of formality. He said the victim will suffer twice ? once at the hands of the offender and a second time for the inefficient procedural mechanisms.
In an editorial today, Hoy newspaper predicts that the “revolutionary” new penal procedures code may go the way of the equally-modern Social Security Law that has languished and remained a theoretical plan only, unable to be put into practice for lack of resources. The newspaper expresses its hope that the necessary efforts be made to reconcile the penal code’s theory and practice.