SANTO DOMINGO.- The judge of the Permanent Attention Office of the National District began this Thursday the hearing to know the measure of coercion against the ten involved in the alleged million-dollar fraud against the National Health Insurance (SeNaSa)whose damage exceeds 16 billion pesos.
The hearing, chaired by the magistrate Rigoberto Senabegan after 2:00 in the afternoon, with the presence of all those charged, who were taken to the court minutes before.
Last Monday, the judge had postponed the hearing to give the defendants’ lawyers time to prepare their means of defense.
Those involved
The group of defendants is headed by the former director of SeNaSa, Santiago Marcelo F. Hazim Albainyalong with Rafael Luis Martínez Hazim, Gustavo Enrique Messina Cruz, Germán Rafael Robles Quiñones, Francisco Iván Minaya Pérez, Eduardo Read Estrella, Cinty Acosta Sención, Ramón Alan Speakler Mateo, Ada Ledesma Ubiera and Heidi Mariela Pineda Perdomo.
The defendants, brought to the courtroom at 2:20 p.m., face charges of coalition of officials, prevarication, association of criminals, collection of bribes, fraud against the State, embezzlement, falsification, use of false documents and money laundering.
Request from the Public Ministry
The Public Ministry, represented by the General Directorate of Persecution and the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for the Prosecution of Administrative Corruption (Pepca)under the direction of Wilson Camacho and Mirna Ortizasked the court to impose 18 months of preventive detention for the ten prosecuted within the framework of the Operation Cobra.
The defendants remain under arrest in the detention center of the National District Prosecutor’s Office, in Ciudad Nueva, since last Saturday.
