The Second Collegiate Court of the National District announced the merging of the case of the murder of the lawyer Yuniol Ramirez and that of administrative corruption in the Metropolitan Office of Bus Services (OMSA) during the administration of Manuel Rivas. The Public Prosecutor’s Office had requested the unifying of the two cases. Prosecutor Mirna Ortiz explained that the accusations, witnesses and victims are the same. She explained that the case was divided when key suspect Argenis Contreras left the country. Now Contreras is back and expected to testify in court.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office accuses Argenis Contreras of responsibility in the kidnapping and murder of the lawyer and university professor Ramirez Ferreras. A UASD university professor, Ramírez was investigating corruption at the Omsa government bus company. Others accused in the case are Jose Mercado (El Grande), Victor Ravelo Campos (El Herrero), Jorge Abreu, Heidy Peña and Lilian Francisca Suarez Jaquez.
Meanwhile, the former director of OMSA, Manuel Rivas and then Omsa financial director Faustino Rosario Díaz are facing charges for the acts of corruption in the OMSA. The past judicial authorities removed them from the murder case.
Ramirez Ferreras, who was president of the National Convergence of Lawyers (CONA), was found dead with a concrete block tied to his neck by a chain, in a creek in Hato Nuevo, in Santo Domingo West. The crime dates back to October 2017.
Argenis Contreras was captured in the United States and deported back to the country to face charges after the change in government and the authorities at the Attorney General Office.
The hearing will resume on 31 March 2022.
Read more in Spanish:
El Dia
28 February 2022