At the request, initially for the defense of Gonzalo Castillo and this Thursday Public Ministryto add another day of the week to hear the preliminary trial for corruption of former officials, the judge of the Fourth Investigative Court denied the request, arguing that the ideal would be to comply with the planned schedule.
The magistrate Altagracia Castillo argued that, if so many medical licenses of accusedand the phase of the so-called evidence trial has been concluded to date.
“It’s not about adding other days to the calendar, it’s about meet the schedule just as we had planned. There is no point in adding more days,” the judge responded.
Postponed by medical leave of Rafael Calderon
Today, Thursday, the lawyer of the former senator from Azua, Rafael Calderonpresented a seven-day license from the accused who was operated on.
Calderonwho is over 80 years old, on another occasion presented a health situation In the middle of the hearing, he was taken to the Abreu clinic, but he returned minutes later and the hearing was able to continue.
Last week hearings could not be held because another of the accused, Juan Tomás Polanco Céspedesalso sent medical certificate due to a kidney condition.
Laura Acostawho heads the defense of the former Minister of Public Works and former presidential candidate of the PLD, said today that it was no longer necessary to add another day of hearings and stated that in one day he could present his client’s technical defense.
The parties to the process were summoned for the next Thursday the 11th of this month of December.
Judge denied postpone until January
Judge Altagracia Ramírez also denied the lawyer’s request Ingrid Hidalgo that the trial will resume in January.
Hidalgo made the request because, he said, most law offices take collective vacation in the month of December.
“Judges do not take collective vacationthat is, we are here to hear hearings on business days of each year, with the exception of holidays,” the judge responded.
The judge said that she will continue to know the scheduled hearings on the calendar out of respect for the due process and “at reasonable period to which each of the parties is entitled and to which the parties so much raise every time they are in court.
The accusation of the case, called Operation Squidheaded, in addition to Castillo, Donald Guerrero, Jose Ramon Peralta and the former director of the CEA, Luis Miguel Piccirilo, of more than thirty accused.
He Public Ministry points them out irregular payments in properties declared of public utility, bribes and other crimes.
