Saint Dominic.-“No more, no less, only what we deserve. Enough of the abuse, enough of the abuse,” shouted the prosecutors grouped in the associations of Dominican Prosecutors (Fiscaldom) and Dominican Career Prosecutors (Adofic), during the tour of each of the courts of the Palace of Justice.
The judges of the different courts nationwide yesterday postponed all judicial processes due to the lack of prosecutors, which paralyzed work in the prosecutor’s offices and courthouses nationwide, demanding a salary increase and a decent pension regime.
“Without prosecutors, the processes are not known,” said the prosecutors who participated in the strike inside a court. Both in the National District and in Santo Domingo Oeste and Este, a single court remanded twelve hearings.
Prosecutor Santa Reyes stated that there are several colleagues who suffer from diseases such as cancer and others that undergo expensive treatment, and they keep working because if they retire they will receive a pension of RD$22,000. This is because the institution does not have a decent pension and retirement plan and other prerogatives such as incentives, promotions and holding competitions to fill expired positions.
Soraine Varga asks that they be given the acquired rights and what they deserve before the law and society for a service that is “wearying and stressful, but that we do it with a lot of love because we live in this country and we want a clean society.”
Attorney Miriam Germán Brito suspended the competition and promotions in September so that they can be assumed by the new head of the Public Ministry who is appointed. Due to these deficiencies and other shortcomings, 8% of the 1,230 prosecutors that make up the prosecution body have resigned.
The general coordinator of Fiscaldom, Andrés Comas, said that the Dominican people deserve a justice system that works.
Lawyers for the parties involved stated that they were aware of the prosecutors’ strike, but that they had to appear at the hearing only to hear that it was postponed.
Budget
— Increase
Prosecutors grouped in the Fiscaldom and Adofic associations call on the Executive Branch to increase the budget that corresponds to the Attorney General’s Office so that it assumes the needs and shortcomings of the members of the Public Ministry.
Germán Brito meets prosecutors today
Meeting. Attorney General Miriam Germán Brito will meet at eleven in the morning today with representatives of prosecutorial entities that yesterday paralyzed their work in demand of different demands and affected the hearings in the country’s courthouses.
Before ending the strike yesterday, scheduled from nine in the morning until 4:30 in the afternoon, a meeting took place with prosecutors to schedule today’s meeting with the attorney general.
Rodolfo Espiñeira, first substitute for the attorney general, participated in yesterday afternoon’s meeting; Yenni Berenice Reynoso, director of Pursuit.
