The judge of the Seventh Investigating Court of the National District Deiby Timoteo Peguero rejected this Monday the request for freedom or measure of coercion more flexible requested by Juan Alexis Medina Sanchez and three others mentioned in the notorious case of corruption administrative called Antipulpo.
It will also keep the preventive prison to Ferdinand Rose, Wacal Vernavel Méndez Pineda and Jose Dolores Santanathe only ones in prison for the case.
Although the defendants presented a guarantee that they will continue the process if they are granted parole and argued that the Public Ministry has finished its investigation, the judge decided to keep them in prison.
Protected by law, Judge Peguero set a new mandatory review for next Monday, May 16. He also reminded the defendants that their decision can be appealed.
For its part, the Public Ministry, represented by Wilson Camacho, head of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Corruption Administrative (Pepca), said that the judge’s decision could not be otherwise, because what was presented to him was not a sufficient budget for the variation of the measure of coercion.
He stressed that this case has more than 2,000 means of evidence and more than 100,000 documents deposited by the Public Ministry, for which he does not doubt that this body may gain rights.
Carlos Salcedo, legal representative of Juan Alexis Medina, considered that this measure contradicts important decisions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
“There must be a specific risk of flight, which does not exist, and the judge did not assess this,” said Salcedo.
Likewise, José Miguel Minier, Fernando Rosa’s lawyer, regretted that the magistrate considered that in the 15 months in prison that the members of the alleged network have been in, the budgets have not changed.
“This is criminal populism, a parallel trial, that’s the only thing here. Here only the power in power is pleased,” sentenced.
The lawyers stated that they will appeal the decision.
The accusation
The Public Ministry accuses Juan Alexis Medina Sánchez of belonging to a network of corruption that he swindled the State out of billions of pesos, taking advantage of his condition as the brother of the then President of the Republic, Danilo Medina Sánchez.
Against Juan Alexis Medina Sánchez and another 27 accused individuals and 21 companies, the Public Ministry presented an accusation on December 17, 2021, through a voluminous file for corruption and money laundering.
The Public Ministry also accuses Carmen Magalys Medina Sánchez of taking advantage of her family ties and her position as vice president of the Patrimonial Fund of Reformed Companies (Fonper) to commit crimes within the alleged framework of corruption of which his brother, Juan Alexis Medina Sánchez, served as operational manager.
They are accused Fernando Rosa, who directed the Fonper; Wacal Vernavel Méndez Pineda and José Dolores Santana Carmona. Also Francisco Pagán Rodríguez, general director of the Office of Supervising Engineers of State Works (Oisoe), and Aquiles Alejandro Christopher, inspector of that state unit.
The accusation of the case presented by the General Directorate of Persecution of the Public Ministry and Pepca also includes Julián Suriel Suazo, Lorenzo Wilfredo (Freddy) Hidalgo Núñez, who was Minister of Public Health; former Comptroller General Rafael Antonio Germosén and Domingo Antonio Santiago Muñoz. Germosén and Pagán collaborate with the investigation of the Public Ministry.
